Animal Science Abstract
Editorial
'Animal science and globalization' is the presidential theme for the British Society of Animal Science during the current year. Readers of Animal Science may ask: Why this theme?
Two contrasting events in 2001 - the world's worst foot and mouth disease outbreak in the UK and the terrorist attacks in the USA - were stark reminders of threats posed by globalization. Two United-Nation events in 2002 - the 'World Food Summit: five years later', in June and the 'World Summit on Sustainable Development', in September - are addressing globalization issues. In 1996, 0.2 of the world's 6 billion population, was estimated to be 'poor', i.e. living on less than one US dollar a day. Two-thirds of the 'poor', 800 million, was deemed 'hungry'. Five years ago there was global agreement to halve, by 2015, the proportions of poor and hungry. The agendas for the 2002 summits include reviewing the very slow progress to date, towards achieving these targets. The majority of the poor and hungry are in developing countries and are mainly rural populations, with their livelihoods linked to agriculture. The fact that almost three-quarters of the rural poor own livestock suggests a large future rôle for improved animal agriculture in alleviating poverty and hunger. Livestock and aquaculture are the only major activities currently undertaken by the rural poor that are growing rapidly.
In November 2002, the British Society of Animal Science, in collaboration with the American Society of Animal Science and Mexican Society of Animal Production is organizing the international conference 'Responding to the increasing global demand for animal products', in Merida, Mexico. The large demand-increase, the 'Livestock Revolution', was heralded in 1999 from a joint study undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Livestock Research Institute. Due to increases in population, urbanization and incomes, developing-country consumption of both meat and milk is predicted to grow by almost 0.03 annually, to 2020. This compares with annual consumption increases predicted for developed countries of only 0.007 and 0.004, for meat and milk respectively. Despite these increases, per capita consumption of meat and milk in developing countries, in 2020, is predicted to be only one-third that of developed countries. In 2020, China is predicted to consume one-third of global meat and India one-fifth of global milk. By 2020, developing countries will produce 0.6 of global meat and 0.5 of global milk. These predictions suggest a large and increasing rôle for animal agriculture in developing countries.
These predictions pose many questions. What rôles will there be for animal science research, and its application, in alleviating poverty and in responding to the livestock revolution? What are the implications of the livestock revolution for animal agriculture in developed countries? There are other issues of animal science and globalization needing consideration, e.g. animal welfare, food safety, biosecurity and environmental pollution. Readers will ask: What are the implications of globalization for animal science research and for international journals such as Animal Science? These are questions and issues that will be discussed by the British Society of Animal Science during the current year.
Professor Emyr Owen
President, British Society of Animal Science
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