Tag Archives: The Conversation

Do Kenya’s camel handlers face a threat from MERS? What we found
Agri-Health / AHH / Camels / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / MERS / News clipping / Zoonotic Diseases

Do Kenya’s camel handlers face a threat from MERS? What we found

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In Kenya, camels are a very popular animal to keep as livestock. There’s value in their meat and milk products and as a result, there are now over three million camels in the country. But there is a danger that the people who come into contact with camels, and their products, face getting the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). MERS is a disease in people caused by a coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which was first identified in Saudia Arabia in 2012. Continue reading →

Why shutting down Chinese ‘wet markets’ could be a terrible mistake
Advocacy / Agri-Health / Asia / China / Consumption / COVID19 / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Human Health / Livelihoods / Markets / News clipping / Pro-Poor Livestock / Zoonotic Diseases

Why shutting down Chinese ‘wet markets’ could be a terrible mistake

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The current focus on exotic food consumption in China often relies on Orientalisation, and is in some cases tinged with anti-Chinese sentiment. Continue reading →

What changes in temperature mean for Africa’s tsetse fly
Africa / Agri-Health / Article / Climate Change / Disease Control / Trypanosomiasis / Zimbabwe

What changes in temperature mean for Africa’s tsetse fly

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Future strategies to get rid of tsetse flies from Africa, which transmit disease in livestock and people, will need to take into account the effects of changing climates. My colleagues and I conducted research examining the impact of changes in temperature on the tseste fly. Continue reading →

First ever global scientific eating plan forgets the world’s poor
Animal Products / Climate Change / ILRI / Livestock / LIVESTOCKCRP / Opinion piece / PIL

First ever global scientific eating plan forgets the world’s poor

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A team of world-leading scientists have just released the world’s first ever scientific eating plan. They say the current food system dangerously overproduces greenhouse gases, misuses fertiliser, and causes large-scale food wastage and massive land degradation. Their solution is to shift to a diet that transforms this damaging food system. While this sounds like a silver bullet, it doesn’t recognise the enormous differences across the world when it comes to food consumption and production systems. Continue reading →

Why cows are getting a bad rap in lab-grown meat debate
Advocacy / Biotechnology / Climate Change / Consumption / Environment / News clipping / Nutrition / Opinion piece / Policy / Rangelands / USA / Water

Why cows are getting a bad rap in lab-grown meat debate

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The narrative posited by cultured meat proponents is that animal agriculture requires large amounts of land and water and produces high levels of greenhouse gases (GHG). The environmental impacts of a product, such as a beef hamburger, is then compared to the anticipatory ones for producing a cultured hamburger patty through tissue engineering-based cellular agriculture. While it is true that conventional meat production has a large environmental footprint, the problem with this dichotomous framing is that it overlooks the rest of the story. Continue reading →

Yes, eating meat affects the environment, but cows are not killing the climate
Advocacy / Climate Change / Consumption / Environment / News clipping / Opinion piece / Policy

Yes, eating meat affects the environment, but cows are not killing the climate

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As the scale and impacts of climate change become increasingly alarming, meat is a popular target for action. Advocates urge the public to eat less meat to save the environment. Some activists have called for taxing meat to reduce consumption of it. A key claim underlying these arguments holds that globally, meat production generates more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector. However, this claim is demonstrably wrong, as I will show. And its persistence has led to false assumptions about the linkage between meat and climate change. Continue reading →

Small farms to the rescue—reducing hunger by increasing low yields
Africa / Agriculture / Article / Crops / Environment / Food Security / Intensification / Livelihoods / Nutrition / South Asia

Small farms to the rescue—reducing hunger by increasing low yields

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At the Global Landscapes Initiative in the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, our research focuses on increasing global food security while reducing harmful impacts from agriculture to Earth’s natural resources. We have found that one key strategy to combating food insecurity—lack of access to nutritious foods—is increasing food production on small farms. There are tremendous opportunities to increase yields throughout South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. . . . Continue reading →

Urban expansion has devastated once-rich wildlife populations in lands south of Nairobi, Kenya
Article / Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Policy / Rangelands / Wildlife

Urban expansion has devastated once-rich wildlife populations in lands south of Nairobi, Kenya

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The Athi-Kaputiei ecosystem covers about 2,200 square kilometres of Kenya’s Kajiado County, south of Nairobi. It is also home to Nairobi National Park—the world’s only game reserve within a major city. The ecosystem has experienced some dramatic changes since the late 19th century. The accounts of early writers paint a picture of a spectacular ecosystem teeming with diverse resident and migratory wildlife. Records describe abundant wildebeest that migrated seasonally with other wildlife species, livestock and pastoralists. In a recently published study my colleagues and I examined the impact of land fragmentation in the Athi-Kaputiei ecosystem between 1977 and 2014. Our study shows that urbanisation and development has put the ecosystem in distress. It has fragmented the landscape which has reduced the ability of animals to migrate as they used to. The result is that their numbers have plummeted. Continue reading →

An ‘urban zoo’ project in Kenya is helping unpack the spread of disease in urban environments
A4NH / Agri-Health / Article / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Zoonotic Diseases

An ‘urban zoo’ project in Kenya is helping unpack the spread of disease in urban environments

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Emerging infectious diseases are a major concern to the global public health community, both in terms of disease burden and economic burden. Understanding the processes that lead to their emergence is therefore a scientific research priority. Over the last five years Eric Fevre has been working with a group of researchers to understand what leads to the introduction of pathogens in urban environments and how those then emerge in the human population. Continue reading →