Abstract
In many regions of the world, intensive livestock farming has become a significant source of organic river pollution. As the international meat trade is growing rapidly, the environmental impacts of meat production within one country can occur either domestically or internationally. The goal of this paper is to quantify the impacts of the international meat trade on global organic river pollution at multiple scales (national, regional and gridded). Using the biological oxygen demand (BOD) as an overall indicator of organic river pollution, we compute the spatially distributed organic pollution in global river networks with and without a meat trade, where the without-trade scenario assumes that meat imports are replaced by local production. Our analysis reveals a reduction in the livestock population and production of organic pollutants at the global scale as a result of the international meat trade. However, the actual environmental impact of trade, as quantified by in-stream BOD concentrations, is negative; i.e. we find a slight increase in polluted river segments. More importantly, our results show large spatial variability in local (grid-scale) impacts that do not correlate with local changes in BOD loading, which illustrates: (1) the significance of accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological processes along river networks, and (2) the limited value of looking at country-level or global averages when estimating the actual impacts of trade on the environment.
Highlights
Negative impacts on the environment cannot be overlooked, as intensive livestock farming is a major source of global organic river pollution [4, 5]
In this paper we develop and apply a new method for quantifying the impacts of the international meat trade on organic river pollution by computing spatially distributed organic pollution in global river networks with and without a meat trade, where the withouttrade scenario assumes that meat imports are replaced by local production
The novelty of this paper is threefold: (i) it evaluates the impacts of trade in terms of freshwater dissolved pollutant (BOD) concentrations, as opposed to grey water footprint’ (GWF) or pollutant release into the environment, which are incomplete and indirect measures of freshwater pollution; (ii) it considers spatial heterogeneity of land and water resources, as opposed to country-level assessments reported in the economics and environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature; and (iii) it focuses on organic river pollution as opposed to nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from fertilizer and pesticide use that have been the focus of GWF studies
Summary
Livestock is a key provider of food, income, employment and nutrients to humans [1]. Already common in developed countries, intensification of livestock farming is growing rapidly throughout developing nations [2]. Besides improving productivity and efficiency, intensification creates additional positive impacts, such as increased profitability and investment in livestock farms and the development of regulations for livestock systems [3]. Negative impacts on the environment cannot be overlooked, as intensive livestock farming is a major source of global organic river pollution [4, 5]. The discharge of intensive farm effluents rich in organic pollutants contributes to a reduction of river biodiversity and disruption of aquatic ecosystems through oxygen depletion [6, 7]. These polluted effluents contain pathogens that threaten human health by causing a variety of diseases, including diarrhea [8]
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