The Relationships and Roles of Animals in Sustainable Agriculture and on Sustainable Farms

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Sustainability of individual farms involves primarily resource-based, economic, environmental, and social issues of the farm families. Sustainability of the total agriculture and food system from the farm producers to ultimate consumers includes economic, environmental, ecologic, societal, and cultural aspects for communities and larger regions. Animals and their products are important in the American diet as sources of nutrients and on individual farms as major sources of income in more than 80% of the states.In the agroecosystems of farms there is competition for and synergism in the use of basic resources of land, water, energy, air, labor, technology, capital, and management. Ideally, a stable biotic community or balance among plants and animals is established. Livestock-based farming systems can have an important role in coping with environmental problems such as declining soil fertility, soil erosion, and water contamination.Economically, animals represent a value-adding phase of livestock-crop systems. Animals also play a major role in cushioning or buffering trade and market disruptions of total agriculture. Diversifications of enterprises on a farm is a consideration in risk control. Animal productive efficiency is important in sustainability of individual farms and agriculture in total. Sustainability of livestock-based systems may be significantly influenced by the use of energy or the type of energy used.Constraints to shifting future livestock production to more sustainable systems are: a) current agricultural policies and production practices, b) current technology developed for systems now in use, c) management skills and labor availability based on systems now in use, and d) risk control and financial practices oriented to the systems in use and to the short term rather than long term. Public concerns about animal-based systems are: a) diet and health concerns, b) land and resource availability, c) animal welfare, d) use of biotechnology and other scientific interventions, and 3) environmental impacts.