Animal Science: Food For Everyone

There are a few ways we could work out feeding 9 billion people. Some of it comes down to what we are eating, some to how much, and the rest to our moral and ethical stances on items like medications and Sustainability. The first issue is what we are eating. Most sources list ‘meat’ as beef, veal, pig, poultry, sheep, and goats. They do not take into account other protein sources, such as seafood, buffalo, camel, alligator, kangaroo, or rodents like beaver, Guinea pigs, or rabbits. If we included these and other ‘non-standard’ meat sources we could increase the availability of meats to specific regions where they are already consumed, such as the Guinea Pig in South America or the Camel in the Middle East. Other alternative meats include insects. “Insects are not harmful to eat, quite the contrary. They are nutritious, they have a lot of protein and are considered a delicacy in many countries,” said Eva Muller, the Director of FAO’s Forest Economics, Policy and Products Division (Welsh, 2013).  Of course, Asia and Africa have a long standing tradition of utilizing insects, but most Westerners still cringe just thinking about it.

In the U.S., Alligator meat is considered a delicacy or regional meat. “Today there are over three million alligators in Louisiana, the most concentrated population in the world” (Pfister, 2017). With the entire animal being used (meat, organs, leather, etc.) the American Alligator is a self-sustaining resource that could be cultivated in regions as diverse as Egypt, China, Brazil, and other tropical climates. The alligator is also one of the few animals that, so far, is immune to microbial infection and cancer (Pfister, 2017). This opens up the idea that not only can this become a viable food source, but a source of potential medical research. One area of concern would be the collection of eggs. Currently, most are wild collected, which means that the various farms do not allow natural breeding to collect their own eggs. Moving forward, if we were to use alligator in a larger scale meat production, one would have to develop a way to breed the alligators and collect their eggs.

In many Asian countries, alternatives have been around for years and while the idea of eating insects or dogs is abhorrent to many Westerners, one has to admit, it is a viable protein source. The “Humane Society…estimates that 30 million dogs are killed annually in Asia…[although according to a recent study] less than a quarter of Chinese in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai had consumed dog meat in the previous two years” (Daly, 2017). Some more ‘acceptable’ sources may be various types of seafood like octopus and eel, or fowl like partridge and duck; all of which were eaten in the U.S. in the mid-1900s.

Other options include fish hatcheries like the one at the Florida Bass Conservation Center. The facility is located in Webster, Florida and houses “63 ponds outside and numerous raceways inside [and] can produce more than 6 million fish a year” (Keith, 2017) including bass and catfish. One of the fish they stock is a hybrid that was created in the hatcheries and is called the Sunshine Bass and is “created by combining a female white bass and a male striped bass” (Keith, 2017). While the purpose of the FBCC is to restock our lakes and rivers, the same technology could be used to create Aquaculture facilities around the world and proved fish to communities.

Protein, which is defined as “a nutrient found in food (as meat, milk, eggs, and beans) that is made up of many amino acids joined together, is a necessary part of the diet, and is essential for normal cell structure and function” (Merriam-Webster, 2017), is found in many animal products that do not contain ’meat’, including milk and cheese. South Tampa Farm produces both from their small herd of dairy cows. “South Tampa Farm produces over 20 Gallons of raw, unpasteurized milk each day…[while] Florida contains approximately 120,000 dairy cows which produce over 2 billion pounds of milk each year” (Rickey, 2017). Milk doesn’t just have to come from cows, which take up a lot of space and consume roughly 28 pounds of hay a day when lactating (Rasby, 2013), but from sheep and goats, which consume much less forage at roughly 1 pound of supplemental grain for every 3 pounds of milk produced (Ricketts & Steevens, 1993).

According to the University of Minnesota, “since goats, cattle, and sheep prefer different forages, in many pasture situations these species do not compete for the same food. Therefore, they can be managed quite successfully in a multispecies grazing system, allowing the land to be used more fully and generate more income” (Kieser, 2010). This opens up land usage to multiple species of dairy and meat producers, which in turn can increase our ability to produce ‘protein’ of various sources.

How much is enough is another issue that can assist in expanding our ability to feed the world. In 2012, Americans consumed some 92.4 Kilograms of ‘meat’. The projected consumption for 2022 shows a slight drop to 91.4 kilograms (Willett, 2014), but the U.S. isn’t the only superpower out there. China and India are raising the demand for meat consumption, with some reports showing China alone is looking at increasing their consumption 80% in the next 10 years alone (Willett, 2014). However, changing the average portion size may help alleviate what is obviously going to be an issue. According to the American Heart Association, a serving size is “2 to 3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry or fish; 1/2 cup cooked dry beans; or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter” (American Heart Association, 2017). As an example, your standard McDonald’s hamburger comes in at 8.0 ounces of meat (Keefe, 2016). That’s four times the serving size suggested by the AHA. We could quadruple food options right now just by going back to the sizes we ate in the 1950s and 60s.

If we combine smaller portions and alternative food sources such as alligator or goat and sheep milk/meat, then we could conceivably produce the necessary amount of food for the expected population of 9 billion people by 2050. The key will be proper land and animal management. By diversifying our productions we can increase the usage of our forages and decrease our consumption of fertilizers and medications and create a more sustainable agricultural ecology. For example, two acres of decent pasture can support different combinations of different species. “Each animal is going to eat roughly 2½ to 3 percent of its body weight in food every day” (Waller, McNeal, & Hinds, 2011) so you have to do a bit of math to see what works the best. Typically the recommendation is two acres for each 1,000 pounds of animal; so two 500-pound cows is the same as twenty five-pound chickens. As each animal will require different pasturage (cows and horses lush grass, goats’ woody forage, and chickens mixed grass/weeds) a properly managed two-acre lot can handle different combinations. These different combinations will allow for more flexibility for diversified farming and allow for farmers in areas with less-than-perfect acreage to utilize their land in the best possible manner.

References

American Heart Association. (2017, March 6). What is a Serving? Retrieved from American Heart Association: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Support/What-is-a-Serving_UCM_301838_Article.jsp#.WPQaf_nyvIU

Daly, N. (2017, April 12). First In Asia. Retrieved from National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/taiwan-dog-cat-meat-animal-welfare-china-korea/

Keefe, B. (2016, April 7). Fast Food Nation (Around the World). Retrieved from Center for Innovation, Mayo Clinic: http://blog.centerforinnovation.mayo.edu/2016/04/07/fast-food-nation-around-the-world/

Keith, A. (2017, April). The Florida Bass Conservation Center. Florida.

Kieser, L. (2010, April 30). Feeding dairy goats. Retrieved from Dairy Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/dairy/feed-and-nutrition/feeding-dairy-goats/

Merriam-Webster. (2017). Protein. Retrieved from Definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protein

Pfister, C. (2017, April). Insta-Gator Ranch. Louisiana.

Rasby, R. (2013, April). Determining How Much Forage a Beef Cow Consumes Each Day. Retrieved from UNL Beef: http://beef.unl.edu/cattleproduction/forageconsumed-day

Ricketts, R., & Steevens, B. (1993, October). Feeding and Housing Dairy Goats. Retrieved from University of Missouri Extension: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G3990

Rickey, M. (2017, April 18). South Tampa Farm. Florida.

Waller, S., McNeal, L. G., & Hinds, S. (2011, March/April). Animal to Acreage Ratio. Retrieved from Hobby Farms: http://www.hobbyfarms.com/animal-to-acreage-ratio-2/

Welsh, J. (2013, May 15). The UN's Solution To World Hunger Is To Eat More Insects. Retrieved from Business Insider Australia: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/un-eating-insects-to-solve-world-hunger-2013-5

Willett, M. (2014, January 14). How People Consume Meat Around The World [CHARTS]. Retrieved from Business Insider Australia: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-we-eat-meat-around-the-world-2014-1