Introduction
Animal meat, eggs, and milk production include the care of animals sold or animals sold for meat, animals maintained off the farm, type of management system and number and breed of animals, type of animal housing, manure handling, milking parlor operations, and milk storage on the farm.
Each livestock holding during its operation is characterized by inputs (animal feed, medicines and other consumables, human resources, building maintenance materials, equipment replacement, animals, etc.) and outputs (livestock products and subsidies).
Llivestock contribute 40 percent of the global value of agricultural output and contribute to the livelihoods and food security of almost a billion people worldwide.
Livestock production systems can be divided into:
1.traditional (nomadic) which has low inputs, and limited outputs but with high quality products and waste that have little burden on the environment, because they are limited in quantity and have a relatively simple chemical composition,
2.extensive (grazing animals) which has low inputs and outputs accompanied by low environmental burden with waste, but also degradation due to overgrazing of some low productivity pastures and non-compliance with the rules of their proper management),
3.intensive (animals are contained and feed is brought to them) which has high inputs for both buildings and equipment as well for labor, breeding-nutrition, hygiene and management. It's accompanied by high productivity guaranteed in terms of hygiene and nutrient content that lag behind in terms of their organoleptic characteristics, but also a significant environmental burden due to the larger quantity and composition of livestock waste,
4. semi-intensive or semi-extensive (combined use of intensive and extensive breeding),
5 organic ( here the philosophy is based on the extensive way of breeding, but special emphasis is given to issues of environmental protection and welfare of the farmed animals resulting in products of excellent quality and higher purchase value).
Having in mind that: "In several countries across the world, the surging demand for livestock products is largely met by large-scale livestock production and associated food chains. Nonetheless, hundreds of millions of small-scale producers and pastoralists depend on livestock for their livelihoods. Beyond food production, farm animals play other important economic, cultural and social roles and provide multiple functions and services. They are an essential part of agro-ecosystems." (FAO), in this webquest we'll try to understand many aspects around animal production so as to identify how farmers can keep their animal production system healthy and profitable but also sustainable.
Task
As the social trend is to turn towards the demand and consumption of healthier and more sustainable foods much have been written about animal products consumption. On the other hand, FAO works to enhance livestock’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by supporting the transformation of animal production systems – small and large – in ways that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
http://www.fao.org/animal-production/en/
Your task is to work in national and transnational teams based to this webquest so as to create an augmented reality presentation to be used to inform the citizens and the farmers in your area about the animal production systems and how these influence animal welfare, meat quality, our health and environmental sustainability so as to critical think how we'll manage to achieve long lasting access and consumption of nutritious, safe, attractive, and pleasant meat products, taking into account sustainability criteria.
Pay attention that we'll not focus a lot on feed sector right now as this will be part of the next units on this module.
Process
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STEP 1 LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEMS (2HOURS)
In order to identify the types of livestock farming please make use of the information given in intoduction page, read the following article:
https://www.livestocking.net/livestock-farming-overview
and make an extra research on the web, so as to fill the table with the characteristics of each livestock farming system:
| SYSTEM | HOLDING SPACE | BREEDING | PRODUCT QUALITY | ENVIRONMENTAL BURDEN | PRICE OF PRODUCT/INPUTS |
| TRADITIONAL OR NOMADIC | |||||
| EXTENSIVE | |||||
| INTENSIVE | |||||
| SEMI-INTENSIVE/EXTENSIVE | |||||
| ORGANIC |
Post those to the following padlet: https://padlet.com/essayland2020/75to3wt28cft8iw2
and then focus on countries' data, making use of the following links so as to collect data for your country related to agriculture holdings and livestock production. Present those in the same padlet .
You can also add some facts related to the types of farming for your country, which type precedes, what -and in which quantity- is produced, evolution of the number of farmed animals over time, the reasons that may have contributed to the greater or less growth of organic farming in some areas compared to others.
Please point out the key points and findings that are surprising.
You may also find helpfull these links (please use filters for livestock and animal products):
World Data Atlas https://knoema.com/atlas
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/agriculture/data
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QV
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
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STEP 2 LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEMS AND ANIMAL WELFARE (2 HOURS)
Animal health and welfare are key dimensions of the Farm to Fork strategy resulting to an improvement of food quality, and biodiversity preservation due to less need for medication with antibiotics. Adequate animal nutrition combined with good hygiene practices on farms and proper housing are key in promoting and enforcing animal health and welfare. It's logical, if you think that animals like the humans need a safe place for their growth; a shelter (house with four walls and a roof), heat, water, clean air, and access to food.
team 1: poultry
team 2: sheep
team 3: cattle
team 4: swines
team 5: fish
team 6: bees
and make a research on the requirements needed for each species holding place (kind of bedding, space, temperature, and air flow, animal handling, etc) so as to provide to animals a safe and comfortable place for their growth. You are encouraged to design a holding place for your species identifying the main characteristics you found or find photos with creative common licence CC BY-NC 4,0 so as to be included to your presentation:
Which of the farming systems that was described in STEP 1 is the best for animal welfare?
https://www.rhet.org.uk/media/1190/livestock-fact-cards-v1-web.pdf
https://www.rhet.org.uk/media/1188/calendar-v1-web.pdf
You may find helpful these videos:
STEP 3 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND MEAT PRODUCTS QUALITY (1HOUR)
Take a look in the following presentation. Please keep notes so as to describe the characteristics of great quality meat products in a poster. How are those achieved?
https://view.genial.ly/60fd1adc5825d50ddf88621f/video-presentation-meat-products-quality
STEP 4 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENT (1HOUR)
In almost every discussion related to the emissions from agriculture, beef is linked to climate change villains and lot of people are proposing to reduce meat consumption in order to manage to achieve the net-zero targets while others argue that livestock can also be produced sustainably, with little or no GHG emissions. On the other hand lots claim the current systems consume large amounts of natural resources, result in biodiversity loss and negative health impacts, and do not allow fair economic returns to the primary producers.
Make use of all those developed and come in a conclussion on "Why are animals an important part of the future of sustainable agriculture?". Please express your position by writting a position paper.
Evaluation
This is how your work will be evaluated.
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Beginning 1 |
Developing 2 |
Qualified 3 |
Exemplary 5 |
Score /20
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Teamwork |
There is one person doing all the work, and the team is NOT working together. |
The team is working individually on their own role, and using limited talked with others in a group |
Team is working together, but not using the inflammation to connect with one another. |
The whole team is working together, helping each other out, and connecting information with one another. |
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Research / Understanding
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Don't use sources given & information is not factual.Student lacked knowledge |
Use sources were given.Students understood information but couldn't apply it to their projects |
Use sources given, and students understood information but lacked creativity and informational facts |
Use sources, get all information asked, and goes beyond to get and applied extra information to give to their classmates a better idea on the subject |
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Presentations |
No creativity to their presentation, such a little information that classmates aren't able to understand |
Students created a presentation with only text and nothing else. |
Students were able to create a good presentation. |
Great creativity, students are able to understand |
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Posters |
No posters |
Posters are lacking key components. |
Posters contain all key components |
Posters contain all key components and some extra information so these are complete and more useful to anyone interested in the theme. |
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Credits
This WebQuest was created by a team of teachers, within the co-funded Erasmus plus KA229 partnership “Eat Smart Save Your Land” (ESSAY LAND), project number: 2020-1-EL01-KA229-078815.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.