Sustainable animal production in Australia : President�s address

Abstract

The production of meat, milk, wool and wheat in the past 150 years of Australia�s development has generated vast wealth and has fed and clothed millions of people worldwide. However this has been at the expense of this country�s old and fragile natural ecosystems. There is an on-going failure to apportion economic value to externalities, presumably because of the difficulties of valuing aesthetic �commodities,� or activities divorced geographically or temporally from a production activity (eg pollution downstream or in 10 years time). It is conservatively estimated that at least $2bill of unallocated environmental costs are incurred per annum as a result of current agricultural practices (salinity $270 mill pa), soil sodicity ($200mill pa), soil acidity ($300 mill pa), soil erosion ($80 mill pa), water quality ($515 mill pa) in addition to the costs of degradation of aquatic, estuarine and coastal waterways. This economic irrationalism is perpetuated by an increasingly urbanized population that bears little ownership of its role in creating unsustainable agricultural practices. These problems are well recognised. Potential solutions however are rarely addressed. In this paper I make an attempt, albeit a necessarily superficial one, to highlight what I see as the key issues around sustainability of the major livestock industries. For the intensive pig and poultry industries the tremendous gains that have been made in biological efficiency must now be tempered by attention to more socially-acceptable practices, development of alternatives to antibiotic growth promotants, and efficient treatment and utilization of effluent and carcasses. The ruminant industries, likewise, must develop alternatives to practices likely to come under fire from consumers, including mulesing, castration and tail docking.. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our ruminants has become a high priority, as has the development of grazing systems that mimic natural ecosystems in terms of water flows, nutrient flows, and biodiversity. All animal production systems will need to reduce chemical usage and ensure that animal products are safe. Science, technology and education will go some way to addressing many of these issues, but without a shared vision for the ultimate nature of our landscapes and animal production systems, and the means of sharing the costs of achieving that vision, we will not achieve sustainability.