Feed Bussiness Worldwide: August 2014

 

by Eric J. BROOKS

 

Livestock farming is currently transitioning from a 20th century agribusiness model's antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) era into a third and more promising paradigm based on natural growth promoters (NGPs). More to the point, it cannot transition to its new, sustainable production model fast enough.

 

Responding to new US FDA guidelines on the use of livestock antibiotics introduced earlier this year, the University of Vermont Law School department of environmental health noted that, "Antibiotic-resistant infections kill 23,000 people in the US and make another 2 million Americans sick each year." Although, "Some of this resistance has come from medical overuse of antibiotics…another large source of exposure is through eating conventionally [AGP] raised meat."

 

Of course, hindsight is always perfect: It is easy to criticize AGPs while ignoring the billions of people around the world were able to afford nutritious, inexpensive meals because of them over the past sixty years. To mid-20th century farmers remembering the struggles of their late 19th century grandparents, AGPs and trace metals had a near miraculous effect on their animals' performance - and even more so on their livestock investment returns. The benefits of AGPs were immediately visible but their dangers stayed invisible at the molecular level, and took decades to be proven.

 

Having said that, for both traditional supplements and AGPs, the situation was (and mostly still is) clearly unsustainable. Yet, for over half a century, profit margins were supported amid rising negative feedback from new, dangerous pathogenic threats to human health, rising soil contamination, water pollution and suffering animals.

 

In the early 20th century, a traditional, passive approach to livestock health gave way to a slew of new discoveries. Prior to this time, different breeds of the same poultry or cattle would perform in a widely different manner, even when given the same feed materials in different geographic zones.

 

With the discovery of vitamins, trace minerals and their importance in animal metabolism, it soon became apparent that some feed inputs contained more of the above than others. Depending on which region the feed crop was grown, in some cases, even the same raw input varied in its availability of key vitamins and enzymes. Supplementation was born as a way to bridge nutrient gaps and bring animal performance closer to its full genetic potential.

 

At the same time, the discovery of antibiotics led both to the curing or control of countless livestock diseases, and the related discovery that at low doses, antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) provide a highly, effective, low cost boost to livestock performance. By the second half of the 20th century, all the above profoundly boosted the feed conversion ratios (FCRs) of livestock, and later on, farmed fish.

 

As positive and powerful as their impact on animal health was, the use of these new technologies also led to a multitude of abuses, eventually creating disastrous outcomes for both human and animal welfare.

 

 

The full report is published on the August 2014 issue of FEED Business Worldwide. To read the full report, please email to  inquiry@efeedlink.com to request for a complimentary copy of the magazine, indicating your name, mailing address and title of the report.