Free Lecture! Tony Weis: The Trajectory of Global Livestock Production

The average person on earth annually consumes nearly twice as much meat as occurred just a half century ago, over a period when the human population leapt from roughly 3 billion to over 7 billion people. On the current course, there will be more than 9 billion people by 2050 consuming an average of more than 110 pounds (50 kg) of meat per year, with huge disparities between rich and poor and the fastest growth occurring in the middle. Roughly 70 percent of global meat production by volume comes from pigs and chickens, and the industrial production of these two species, led by chickens, is expected to account for almost all further growth. If this continues, the annual population of slaughtered animals would soar from 70 billion today to 120 billion by 2050, with devastating environmental impacts added to the enormous implications for animal suffering. To understand and confront this trajectory it is necessary to appreciate the nature of the industrial grain-oilseed-livestock complex, and the crucial role that cycling of feed through livestock has played in profitably absorbing grain and oilseed surpluses