The developed world is unlikely to meet its long-term greenhouse gas emission targets without a reduction in overall levels of dairy production and consumption, according to Richard Perkins, an official of the environmental group WWF-UK.
Speaking last week at the World Dairy Forum in the Hague , organized by the European Dairy Association, Perkins stressed that the dairy industry in Europe in particular had made praiseworthy attempts over the past few years to bring its greenhouse gas emissions under control.
But citing research commissioned by WWF, he maintained that the scale of dairy cattle's contribution to carbon and methane emissions was such that it would simply not be possible to achieve the desired long-term cuts in overall GHG emissions without some constraints in dairy sector activity.
Perkins commended the dairy sector for its "fantastic" efforts to coordinate mitigation efforts and work across the production chain to reduce carbon and methane footprints, but he nevertheless took the view that ultimately, a reduction in dairy production and consumption would need to happen, according to reporting by our sister publication Agra Europe.
"I know that's a tough message to deliver to a forum like this, but that's what the research says," Perkins told delegates.
In the same session, Theun Vellinga of Wageningen University presented figures indicating that the dairy industry worldwide was responsible for 4 percent of overall GHG emissions.
Vellinga stressed however that the picture varied widely in different regions in the world, indicating that the least developed and least intensive dairying regions –– Africa, Asia and South America –– accounted for two-thirds of global dairy sector emissions. This, he said, posed a dilemma given the essential role that the dairy sector could play in boosting availability of affordable protein for impoverished communities in developing countries.
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