Redesigning Animal Agriculture
Redesigning Animal Agriculture
Redesigning Animal Agriculture
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206 D.L. Swain and M. Gill<br />
are a number of potential applications for<br />
techniques associated with genetic engineering.<br />
In earlier chapters, Doran and Lambeth<br />
(Chapter 8 this volume) discussed using<br />
RNAi to create transgenic chickens that are<br />
resistant to avian influenza and Wells and<br />
Laible (Chapter 7 this volume) discussed<br />
the use of cloning and transgenesis as an<br />
effective tool for disseminating superior<br />
genotypes.<br />
The ability to effectively ‘design’ animals<br />
for specific systems could potentially bring<br />
very significant economic benefits to producers<br />
and both environmental and societal<br />
benefits to the general public. Our hypothesis<br />
is that the principles of sustainable development<br />
can provide a suitable framework<br />
within which to explore the opportunities<br />
and application of new molecular technologies<br />
to design more resilient livestock production<br />
systems that meet the needs of future<br />
societies.<br />
Application of the principles of sustainable<br />
development to the livestock industry<br />
Sustainability is a word that has multiple<br />
definitions and meaning (Tilman et al.,<br />
2002). It is easy to say that a sustainable<br />
approach to livestock development embraces<br />
economic, environmental and social outcomes.<br />
Can these tenets be given equal<br />
weighting or are they even independent of<br />
one another? Multinational businesses have<br />
learnt that they are not. For example, Shell<br />
saw the impact of public opinion on their<br />
‘bottom line’ when they tried to dump the<br />
Brent Spar oilrig at sea. A quote from Shell<br />
captures the importance of listening and<br />
engaging with the broader community.<br />
Today we have learnt a serious lesson…<br />
We must take the views of the public<br />
into account, even where they have been<br />
influenced by a single-issue organisation…<br />
behaving entirely irrationally.<br />
This is but one of many examples<br />
that could be quoted and global corporate<br />
industries are responding. <strong>Agriculture</strong>,<br />
however, is in the main a different type of<br />
industry and livestock industries are comprised<br />
of multiple small and medium-sized<br />
enterprises. There is only a loose connection<br />
between the individual farmer and the<br />
broader community (Pierce, 1994, Smithers<br />
et al., 2005). It can be difficult to recognize<br />
and respond individually or corporately to<br />
social and environmental pressures (Burton<br />
and Wilson, 2006). TV images of farmers in<br />
Latin America chopping down rainforests<br />
for beef production can have an impact on<br />
meat sales in any location, even if individual<br />
farmers locally are following best environmental<br />
practice. So how do we apply<br />
sustainable development principles to such<br />
a fragmented industry?<br />
Farmers are in the business of food production<br />
and need to see an economic return,<br />
while consumers want to continue to pay<br />
low prices for food, but at the same time to<br />
dictate what is, or is not, an acceptable social<br />
and environmental cost (Ignatow, 2006). If it<br />
is the scientist who initiates and develops<br />
knowledge-based tools then it is the farmer<br />
that chooses to use them and the consumer<br />
that decides whether they accept the way<br />
in which the products have been produced.<br />
Previous chapters have demonstrated the<br />
technologies that are available for redesigning<br />
animal agriculture, but the application<br />
of sustainable development principles supports<br />
the proposition that the integration<br />
of the emerging technologies within farm<br />
systems needs to be a partnership involving<br />
the broader community, as suggested by<br />
Todt (2004). This partnership should not,<br />
however, be considered a linear process.<br />
There needs to be active dialogue between<br />
scientists, farmers, consumers and policy<br />
makers, to ensure that scientific advances<br />
are acceptable to society as a whole and so<br />
can be adopted to achieve better economic,<br />
environmental and social outcomes.<br />
To some extent this is already happening.<br />
In the last 15 years there has been a<br />
shift from ‘productivism’ to ‘consumerism’<br />
with a change in emphasis from maximizing<br />
food production to delivering a broader<br />
range of social and environmental benefits.<br />
Farm systems are now expected to simultaneously<br />
meet both production and environmental<br />
goals in a socially acceptable manner
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