Yesterday, March 17, the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) co-hosted together with the Governments of Switzerland, Uruguay, Kenya, Mongolia, Ireland, Canada, the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership (FAO-LEAP), and the Global Dairy Platform (GDP), the webinar “Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL) Multi-stakeholder Climate Action in support of Sustainable Livestock-based Food Systems”, organised by the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL) on the margins of the first session of the COAG Sub-Committee on Livestock.
The event aimed to demonstrate the opportunities for multi-stakeholder, livestock-based climate action to build on diversity to foster transformation towards more sustainable food systems.
In her role of representative of the Oceanian Constituency onto the WFO Board of Directors, Katrina Sarah Milne, a dairy farmer in New Zealand and former President of the Federated Farmers, brought the farmers’ voice into the debate.
She highlighted the most significant challenges the livestock sector faces, raising awareness also on the social one. Indeed, the reactions from people who hear negative things about GHG emissions caused by agriculture is leading to a reduction in the number of people working on a farm.
Livestock production systems hold great and still untapped potential in fostering soil health, soil fertility, biodiversity, and increased carbon sequestration, and farmers are already doing a lot in this area, providing valuable solutions based on innovative and nature-positive approaches to livestock management.
Closing her speech, WFO Board Member emphasised the importance of sharing knowledge and best practices, especially among farmers, to improve climate change adaptation and mitigation capacity and boost nature-positive production.
Livestock plays an integral role in economic, social, and environmental development. Working together through the entire value chain, in a joint bottom-up approach, including all the actors and not only the institutions, is the only way to get environmentally, socially, and economically viable solutions for a sustainable livestock sector that everyone can benefit from. That is why, in the framework of last year’s UN Food Systems Summit, WFO, together with science organisations and the private sector, established a Global Sustainable Livestock Coalition.