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Shaping the future of livestock

Sustainably, responsibly, efficiently










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    Contribution of terrestrial animal source food to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health outcomes
    An evidence and policy overview on the state of knowledge and gaps
    2023
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    Diverse foods derived from livestock production systems, including grazing and pastoralist systems, and from the hunting of wild animals, provide high-quality proteins, important fatty acids and various vitamins and minerals – contributing to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health. Livestock species are adapted to a wide range of environments, including areas that are unsuitable for crop production. Globally, more than a billion people depend on livestock value chains for their livelihoods. Small-scale livestock farmers and pastoralists make up a large proportion of livestock producers. Well integrated livestock production increases the resilience of small-scale farming systems. Livestock also provide other important ecosystem services in landscape management, provide energy and help to improve soil fertility. Rangeland or grassland ecosystems occupy some 40 percent of the world’s terrestrial area. Livestock keepers raise grazing animals to transform grassland vegetation into food. Challenges related to high resource utilization and pollution, food–feed competition, greenhouse-gas emissions, antimicrobial resistance and animal welfare as well as zoonotic and food-borne diseases, accessibility and affordability need to be solved if agrifood systems are to become more sustainable. FAO’s Committee on Agriculture requested a comprehensive, science- and evidence-based global assessment of the contribution of livestock to food security, sustainable food systems, nutrition and healthy diets, considering environmental, economic and social sustainability. The assessment consists of four component documents. This first component document provides a holistic analysis of the contribution of terrestrial animal source food to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health outcomes over the course of people’s lives.
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    Adding Value to Livestock Diversity - Marketing to promote local breeds and improve livelihoods 2010
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    Many local livestock breeds and minor species are in decline and may be lost because they cannot compete with high-yielding exotic breeds. Conserving these breeds is important: many have unique traits, such as hardiness and disease resistance, that are vital for future livestock production. One way to help ensure their survival may be to sell products from these breeds to high-value, specialist markets. The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources acknowledges the importanc e of market access to the sustainable use of livestock diversity and calls for development of markets for products derived from local species and breeds, and for strengthening processes that add value to their products. This publication describes eight examples of marketing of livestock products (wool, cashmere, milk, meat and hides) from local breeds of Bactrian camels, dromedaries, goats and sheep in seven countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It shows how they have kept local breeds in use, while enabling the small-scale livestock keepers and pastoralists who raise them to improve their livelihoods.
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    Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER 2019): Symposium working documents
    Assessment tools, management practices and economics of soil erosion
    2019
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    At its Sixth Session in June 2018, the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Plenary Assembly (PA), upon request of its Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), voted to organize a Symposium on soil erosion “considering that this is the main threat affecting global soils”. The Symposium aims to incentivize bottom-up global soil erosion assessments under the umbrella of the Food and Agriculture’s (FAO) GSP. The Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER19) is organized around three key themes: 1. Soil erosion assessment tools and data: creation, consolidation and harmonization; 2. Best erosion management practices of the last 20 years and policy support to address human-induced erosion; 3. The economics of soil erosion Although the three themes will be treated separately during the Symposium, they are inter-related. Prior to the GSER19 and for each of the themes, working groups were set up with the objective of discussing the key topics to be tackled for each theme. The discussions held within each of the three working groups were then translated into working documents that are presented in this final document. The three theme working documents will eventually assist the GSP and its partners in planning upcoming actions to address soil erosion at the global, regional and local level. A revised version of this document will be included in the outcome c of the Symposium, which will be published after the event. The working groups were composed of experts, members of the GSP’s ITPS, and the Science-Policy Interface of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (SPI-UNCCD), who participated on a voluntary basis.

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