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Challenges for Scottish Ruminant Livestock in a Global Context (2011)
This Policy Briefing discusses the issues associated with ruminant livestock production, placing Scottish livestock production and its relationships with food production and climate change issues in a global context.
There have been a number of recent calls in favour of shifting global, UK and Scottish production away from ruminant livestock to mitigate against the climate change impacts. Scotland has particular emphasis on cattle and sheep production from both extensive and more intensive grasslands, with very significant meat and dairy exports. Extensively grazed systems are poorly researched in terms of actual net greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts of livestock grazing on vegetation and soil carbon balances are poorly understood. Despite the insufficient evidence, these critical issues must be balanced in future policies, alongside the other wide-ranging demands on Scotland's land.