Industrial livestock production: A review on advantages and disadvantages

Abstract

Development of livestock production in many parts of the world has shown to be growing more towards an industrialised type of farm animal rearing operations. These involve raising farm animals in densely populated environment, commonly termed as a factory livestock farming. Such an operation is actually aimed at yielding a very large scale of farm animal products by means of intensification in animal rearing systems. This is becoming a global trend in practicing farm animal productions nowadays. The transformation of livestock production from a family small scale animal husbandry to a large scale of corporate business has been mainly driven by three major interrelated factors, these are i) a prediction on a rapid world‘s human population growth, ii) demographic factors, particularly age structure and urbanization, and iii) socio-economic status improvement. The total world‘s population has been estimated to reach 9.1 billion in 2050, where 70 percent of rural inhabitants are going to shift mostly living in urban areas and with their better incomes than previously earned and are also predicted to increase by 2 percent annually. Indications in changing urban lifestyle has then been shown affecting on shifted food consumption patterns more to semi-processed and/or pre-prepared-ready to eat foods of which their main component deriving from livestock product origin. As the trend has been commonly shown in many urban areas, where their working hours are becoming longer than there used to be. In an actual fact, that has been happening for the last two decades, particularly in regions used to be identified as developing countries, such as in Southeast Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, West Asia and North Africa. Consequently, an increase rate in meat consumption has been estimated at over 4 percent per annum. Moreover, that change has become a sequential driving factor for the rapid growth in the meat production sector. As higher consumer preference in chicken meat than that in other types, global broiler production is holding supremacy over the other meat complex. A special highlight on Brunei Darussalam poultry industry development will also be addressed here, particularly to focusing on an industry dynamic based on data posted in country‘s agricultural statistics for the year of 2013 [1]. At that time when the country was reported to fulfil its self-sufficiency in chicken meat with a consumption per capita per year reached 58.5 kg. The figure was accounted as being the second highest chicken meat consumption per capita per year in the world after Hong Kong. In line with the global trend in livestock production, continuous growing demands for the products had also led to intensification in livestock farming in the Southeast Asia region. As far as the factory livestock farming as has gone more common operations up to now, and yet there might have been more and more questionable arguments over negative impacts arising, particularly in regards to animal welfare, human health and environmental degradations will be seemingly left hard to answer as most vast scientific empirical assessments required, nonetheless the matter may only open for discussions.