Sustainable Transformation of Intensive Livestock Production Systems Is Not a Return to “Old McDonald’s Farm”

Our current food system is inefficient, unsustainable, and incapable of feeding the future of 11 billion people without undergoing an extensive transformation. There are 690 million people who are hungry and malnourished, 340 million children suffering from micronutrient deficiencies, while at the same time, 2.1 billion adults are overweight or obese (FAO et al. 2020). In addition, 33 to 40% of food produced globally is lost or wasted annually, which has created a substantial environmental burden where 25% of freshwater resources (FAO 2023), 30% of agricultural land area, and 38% of total energy consumption for food production are wasted while contributing about 8% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from disposal in landfills (FAO 2019). In fact, if food loss and waste were its own country, it would be the third largest GHG emitter (after China and the United States) globally (FAO 2013).