The scientists behind the Dublin Declaration on the Societal Role of Livestock have launched a new Substack publication aimed at bringing livestock science to a wider audience.
The Dublin Declaration Desk will publish a weekly article examining issues around livestock, food and farming through the lenses of nutrition, environmental performance and the wider social and economic role of animal agriculture. Its authors say the aim is to take scientific evidence and make its implications more accessible to people involved in policy and decision-making.
The original Dublin Declaration, launched in 2022 and now signed by more than 1,200 scientists, argues that debates over the future of livestock should be grounded in rigorous scientific evidence rather than simplified or one-size-fits-all approaches. It recognises the environmental and animal-health challenges facing livestock production, while also highlighting its contribution to nutrition, rural livelihoods, land use and wider food systems.
The first substantive article from the new Desk looks at the FAO’s latest assessment of terrestrial animal-source foods, published during FAO Livestock Week.
Authors Peer Ederer and Frédéric Leroy focus particularly on the report’s acknowledgement of significant gaps in the evidence base. These include difficulties comparing different livestock production systems internationally and limitations in the geographical coverage of some of the research available.
Their argument is that recognising uncertainty is a strength rather than a weakness of good science. They contend that the FAO assessment should encourage greater caution around broad policy prescriptions for livestock where the evidence cannot yet support confident conclusions across very different production systems and regions.
For meat processors following the increasingly important debate around livestock, climate, nutrition and food policy, the Dublin Declaration Desk should provide an interesting new source of scientific commentary.
The publication is free to subscribe to and plans to publish every Thursday.
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