Livestock's Toll On The Environment Is Rising, New Report Reveals

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://stopfinancingfactoryfarming.com/news/livestocks-toll-on-the-environment-is-rising-new-report-reveals

Press Release 2 Jul - Written By Stop Financing Factory Farming Coalition (S3F)
For immediate release: Thursday 2 July 2026

Twenty years since the UN published its landmark report warning about the catastrophic environmental impacts of the livestock sector, governments have not only failed to deal with the problem but it has got significantly worse, finds a new report from the Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) coalition.

The new report analyzes the environmental impact of the livestock sector since the publication of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) report ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’ in 2006. It finds that the livestock sector’s already long shadow is lengthening even further beyond safe planetary limits. Key findings include that:

• There has been a 53% increase in the annual number of mammals and poultry farmed worldwide over the last two decades.
• Greenhouse gas emissions are heading dramatically in the wrong direction: A 2024 Harvard survey of 200 climate scientists revealed livestock emissions need to drop 50% by 2030 to meet the World Bank’s target of net zero food emissions by 2050. However, the FAO finds that livestock emissions instead grew 22% from 2001 to 2023.
• Governments are failing to curb loss to biodiversity and tropical forests: The FAO report warned the livestock sector is “the major driver of deforestation” and “may well be the leading player in the reduction of biodiversity”. That remains true today: Around four million hectares of forest are lost globally each year, with agriculture - such as the clearing of forests for cattle - accounting for 70-80% of tropical deforestation.
• Using land for animal-based foods is inefficient, but growing: Animals use 80% of global farming land but only produce 18% of the world’s calories and 37% of total protein. There has been a 27% increase in the amount of global cropland used to produce animal feed since the publication of Livestock’s Long Shadow.
• Animal farming’s use of land, soil, water, air, nitrogen, phosphorus and pesticides are all unsustainable: Globally around 1,000 million hectares of agricultural lands are degraded. Pesticide use has doubled since 1990. Nitrogen is the highest risk within the Planetary Boundaries framework, with farmed animals responsible for around a third of nitrogen emissions.

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https://stopfinancingfactoryfarming.com/publications/livestocks-lengthening-shadow