What type of livestock farming for a successful organic agriculture in the Anthropocene era?

Abstract

Livestock farming activities are often questioned for their negative impact on the environment, including climate change, and competition for agricultural land.  More recently, they have also had to cope with severe pressure on energy resources. Here, we show that, in the European and French context, a large-scale implementation of organic livestock farming, strongly involved in agroecological transition, has led to the reorganization of farming systems and diets. Faced with rising energy prices, we show that livestock farming activities will lose competitiveness in the face of the use of arable land for human consumption and energy production. In addition, animal products will become less accessible to consumers, whose purchasing power will decline. One way out for livestock farming is to refocus on the use of non-cultivable land and a wide range of by-products as feedstuff. We show that the implementation of organic farming practices is fully consistent with these challenges. Such a development also enhances the services that livestock production systems could provide to society. However, there are still major obstacles for the transition of crop and livestock systems, including current strategies and organization of the sector. The role of public policy is therefore crucial in anticipating the inevitable changes and supporting this transition.