Europe shifts on livestock, backs split-gas methane approach
Reading Time:2minutesThe European Commission has reversed a decade-long policy approach that was lowering farmed livestock numbers with a new strategy that encourages their farming. The new strategy. . .
Reading Time:2minutesThe European Commission has reversed a decade-long policy approach that was lowering farmed livestock numbers with a new strategy that encourages their farming. The new strategy acknowledges Europe’s historic and social role of farming livestock, the need for food security, and that policies to limit nitrate levels and address climate change are causing people to leave rural communities. Those policies saw France lose 16% of its bovine population in the past decade. In the same period, Germany lost 22% of its pig population, the report notes. Rowena Hume, Beef + Lamb NZ’s manager of policy and communications, said the new strategy moves Europe closer to NZ’s approach. It questions current methods for measuring livestock methane emissions, supports a split gas approach, rejects taxing those emissions and advocates assisting and rewarding farmers for adopting techniques and technology that reduce methane emissions. Hume said this change is supported by methane science. “The European Union recognises methane as a short-lived gas, which leads down the pathway of split gas target, which is where NZ has got to. ”Livestock farming occupies about 40% of EU agricultural land, generates about NZ$785 billion in annual turnover and employs 7 million people on 4 million farms. The European Commission has amended its policies on livestock farming to encourage the farming of animals, says Rowena Hume, Beef + Lamb NZ’s manager of policy and communications. Many of those farms are on land unsuited to any other economic activity. Europe’s rural areas “need livestock for their survival”, the strategy states. “With its crucial role in keeping population in rural areas and their economic vitality, it provides a strong contribution to EU security and preparedness objectives. ”Profitability has been a challenge due to high input costs and market volatility, and the report acknowledges complying with EU standards for animal welfare, food safety, climate and environmental protection “may generate production costs that are not always reflected in market prices”. The strategy aims to revitalise the sector by improving competitiveness, strengthening animal welfare conditions, minimising the climate and environmental footprint and ensuring livestock production systems continue to fit the characteristics of different regions and sustain rural economies and traditions. Hume said this change in stance shows growing global unity towards the role of livestock farming and the approach that NZ, supported by science, has been advocating on methane emissions. “It is quite a shift from the negative narrative towards livestock farming, to now we need livestock production. ”Central to that approach has been the fact that methane is a short-lived gas, and emissions should be managed on a split gas approach. BLNZ has been working as part of a grouping of 17 nations and 44 agricultural entities advocating that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should adopt a split gas approach when reporting greenhouse gas emissions.