If Kenyans eat less meat and dairy products and transitioned to a plant-based food system over the next 15 years, they could effectively cancel out greenhouse emissions from all other economic sectors for the next 30 to 50 years.
This is the latest in a string of recent research demonstrating the massive environmental strain caused by large-scale livestock farming.
In a campaign dubbed #EatLessMeat, The World Animal Protection, a leading animal welfare organization, call on the world to reduce the amount of meat they eat in an effort to raise awareness about the negative impacts of high meat consumption amidst rising population, drastic climate changes and poor human health and intensification of animal farming.
Over 50 billion farm animals are factory farmed every year, with around two in every three animals raised in intensive systems that prioritize production over welfare and health, the World Animal Protection says.
Dr, Victor Yamo, the Food Systems Campaign Manager at World Animal Protection singled out intensive animal farming as the biggest contributors of animal suffering, deteriorating human health and climate damage.
“This approach to farming places a heavy burden on precious resources, such as grain-based feed, water, energy, and medication, and contributes to a range of issues, including environmental pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, disease, and food insecurity,” he said.
World Animal Protection, says intensive animal farming is the biggest contributor to climate change and excessive consumption of meat leads to obesity which in turn leads to non-communicable diseases.
They say that since deforestation is the second largest driver of global warming, reducing the demand for livestock products can reduce the need for destructive deforestation and mitigate its climate repercussions.
Despite the impact on the environment, the financial stakes are also high. As of May 2022, around 140 million tons of meat was consumed globally – a number that is rising by the minute, and with astonishing speed. In Kenya, the total production of meat was 559,727 tonnes.
This is an increase from 207,035 tonnes in 1972 to 559,727 tonnes in 2021 growing at an average annual rate of 2.53 percent, according to World Data Atlas.
Calls to reduce meat consumption could be detrimental for the country where livestock remains a key sector of the economy, contributing up to 12 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the expected surge in demand projected to push further growth in the meat industry.
The nomad pastoralists, mainly found in Kenya’s Arid and semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), form 70 percent of the population in the country that keeps livestock. The Kenya Meat Trust (KMT) Report Published a report that showed that Meat consumption is concentrated in urban areas with Nairobi and Mombasa accounting for 75 percent of the total consumption.
Despite the financial conflict of interest, the science appears solid with a study published by the University of Illinois, published in Nature Food indicating that reducing meat and dairy production is not just a nice-to-have in the effort to avert the worst effects of climate change, it’s a significant part of the global toolbox
The entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, according to the research
