An international trade perspective on livestock and the environment
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About 150 million tons, or about one third of internationally traded agricultural commodities are livestock products or livestock feed. This international trade flow contains over 3 million tons plant nutrients, which are often shipped from nutrient deficit areas to already nutrient surplus areas, and have therefore potentially strong environmental effects. Depletion of soil fertility on one side of the globe, and nutrient loading at the other, both affecting land, water and bio-diversity, can b e the results. The projected strong growth in the demand for livestock products (de Haan, et al., 1997), as a result of growing populations, rising incomes and rapid urbanization, as well as the increasing global trade liberalization under the recent World Trade Agreement, will affect the direction and scope of these environmental effects. This paper will review this livestock-global trade-environment interaction. It will first provide an overview of the role of feed and livestock products in international trade, then provide indications, how the recent World Trade Agreement might affect international trade patterns, and infer, how, in turn, the changing trade regimes and patterns might affect the impact of livestock on the environment, and what needs to be done next. Finally, the paper will make some suggestions on what could be the outcome of this Conference.