Coun­tries in the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca con­tin­ue to face chal­lenges on mul­ti­ple fronts as they seek to main­tain healthy and sus­tain­able live­stock in­dus­tries and en­sure food se­cu­ri­ty for their re­spec­tive pop­u­la­tions.

This week, de­ci­sion mak­ers wres­tled with such is­sues at the First Re­gion­al Con­fer­ence for the Sus­tain­able Trans­for­ma­tion of Live­stock in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, or­ga­nized by the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the Unit­ed Na­tions (FAO), along­side the Gov­ern­ment of Uruguay and Uruguay’s Na­tion­al Meat In­sti­tute.

One of the key dis­cus­sions fo­cused on how the live­stock sec­tor faces com­plex ad­di­tion­al chal­lenges, in­clud­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, and the ef­fects of the cli­mate cri­sis. In the face of such is­sues, re­gion­al gov­ern­ments have the huge task of en­sur­ing im­proved pro­duc­tion, bet­ter nu­tri­tion, and en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, even as they seek to pos­i­tive­ly im­pact peo­ple’s liveli­hoods with­out leav­ing any­one be­hind.

Ac­cord­ing to da­ta from the FAO), the Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean re­gion hosts 28% of glob­al an­i­mal pro­duc­tion and is re­spon­si­ble for pro­duc­ing 23% of the world’s beef and 21% of its poul­try.

At present, the re­gion­al live­stock in­dus­try is seek­ing to be­come more ef­fi­cient, in­clu­sive, re­silient, and sus­tain­able while en­hanc­ing so­cial im­pacts, nu­tri­tion­al ben­e­fits, and eco­nom­ic re­turns with greater eq­ui­ty and few­er en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pacts.

Here five key rea­sons why ad­vanc­ing to­ward sus­tain­able live­stock pro­duc­tion in the re­gion is es­sen­tial:

1. In­creas­ing glob­al de­mand

A customer decides on how many eggs to order in this photo published in the FAO’s 2022 of its Panorama publication. [Image: © FAO/Max Valencia

FAO

Ac­cord­ing to FAO fig­ures, glob­al de­mand for meat, dairy prod­ucts, and eggs will in­crease by 20% by 2050. If the re­gion aims to meet that de­mand, it will need to ad­dress chal­lenges re­lat­ed to pro­duc­tion adapt­ed to ecosys­tems, es­pe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing the cli­mate cri­sis faced by coun­tries in the re­gion.

2. So­cial and eco­nom­ic im­pact

In this winning photo from the 2021 FAO Americas journalism contest, a female farmer and her children show the operations of their sustainable livestock farm. [Photo: © FAO/ Hernán Vitenberg]

FAO

Ac­cord­ing to FAO da­ta, live­stock is vi­tal to the liveli­hoods of 64.5% of the rur­al pop­u­la­tion in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, it oc­cu­pies 84.5% of the re­gion’s agri­cul­tur­al land, high­light­ing its eco­nom­ic and ter­ri­to­r­i­al sig­nif­i­cance.

3. Live­stock as a means of liveli­hood

México’s Cíhuatl Group farmers proudly show off their poultry raised via sustainable farming methods. [Image: © FAO/Fernando Reyes Pantoja

FAO

Of the 770 mil­lion peo­ple who sur­vive on less than USD 1.90 a day, ap­prox­i­mate­ly half de­pend di­rect­ly on live­stock for their liveli­hoods. Fur­ther­more, the live­stock sec­tor makes a sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tion to both for­mal and in­for­mal economies (40% of the glob­al agri­cul­tur­al GDP, equiv­a­lent to USD 1.8 tril­lion).

4. Im­prov­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty with­out com­pro­mis­ing the en­vi­ron­ment

These Costa Rican farmers keep a watchful eye on the livestock they are raising using sustainable farming methods. [Image: © FAO/Max Valencia

FAO

The key to meet­ing the grow­ing de­mand for an­i­mal pro­tein while pro­tect­ing the en­vi­ron­ment lies in en­hanc­ing live­stock pro­duc­tiv­i­ty more ef­fi­cient­ly, us­ing tech­no­log­i­cal in­no­va­tions and prac­tices that re­spect nat­ur­al sur­round­ings. Uti­liz­ing new tech­nolo­gies to op­ti­mize an­i­mal feed, live­stock health, and soil man­age­ment is es­sen­tial to im­prove pro­duc­tiv­i­ty with­out ex­pand­ing graz­ing ar­eas.

Live­stock in the re­gion must con­tin­ue adopt­ing more sus­tain­able prac­tices, such as im­prov­ing re­pro­duc­tive ef­fi­cien­cy and prop­er ecosys­tem man­age­ment.

5. Key chal­lenges and ecosys­tem restora­tion

Poultry raised via sustainable farming methods employed by Tlaxcala Poultry Group, México. [Image: © FAO/Fernando Reyes Pantoja

FAO

Live­stock must move to­ward a re­gen­er­a­tive mod­el that pro­tects and re­stores ecosys­tems. Im­ple­ment­ing prac­tices that sup­port car­bon cap­ture and bio­di­ver­si­ty preser­va­tion will be es­sen­tial to en­sur­ing the sec­tor’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

FAO stud­ies show live­stock ac­counts for 12% of glob­al green­house gas emis­sions. There­fore, im­ple­ment­ing sus­tain­able man­age­ment prac­tices is key to ad­dress­ing the im­pact of cli­mate change.

FAO sup­ports coun­tries in im­ple­ment­ing ac­tions with­in the live­stock sec­tor, achiev­ing en­cour­ag­ing re­sults and demon­strat­ing that live­stock ac­tiv­i­ties can con­tribute to com­pre­hen­sive so­lu­tions to com­bat cli­mate change, food in­se­cu­ri­ty, and ecosys­tem degra­da­tion. The fo­cus is on bet­ter pro­duc­tion and a health­i­er en­vi­ron­ment, pro­mot­ing bet­ter nu­tri­tion and a bet­ter life, leav­ing no one be­hind.