The provision of responsible consumption and production is essential for a sustainable world. It is inferred that the environmental and human systems are interconnected via economic systems in different ways, resulting in various unsustainable issues. Therefore, SDG-12 aimed to assure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Sustainability is a multi-dimensional approach involving the governance, social, environmental, and economical aspects. Moreover, the United Nations has depicted sustainability as the development that fulfills the present's requirements without influencing the capability of the future generations to achieve their own needs. This in fact what YieldX provides; greater value outputs with zero additinal inputs.
Therefore, the livestock/poultry sector is explicitly demanding to ensure food security. The SDG-12 is associated with sustainable consumption and production and aims to "do better and more with less." Thus, the main goal is to enhance the welfare gains of animals, followed by the reduction of the used resources and environmental degradation/pollution. It reflects that the improvements are required along with the complete life cycle assessment of the products. However, it demands the collaborations of the different stakeholders, including policymakers, industry representatives, retailers, and consumers. Moreover, SDG-12 urges the government to tackle the local procurement policies that assist sustainability and facilitate the private sector to consolidate the sustainable practices to assess their product life cycles. Furthermore, the recent technological advances, i.e., predictive analytics, big data, IoT-based enhanced connectivity, or AI-based systems, positively impact sustainable consumption/production.
Let's dive in;
Sustainable Consumption
Sustainable consumption is attributed to well-balanced diets with all essential nutrients. It is a necessary approach to achieve the nutritional targets while improving the efficiency of the food systems. Thus, sustainable consumption ensures a healthy diet. Whereas, healthy diets fulfill the individual requirements of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) and micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) according to their age, gender, level of physical activity.
Consumption pattern/demand of poultry products
Due to the rapid increase of the global population, the consumption of poultry products is increasing immensely. It is predicted that the demand for poultry products will be doubled by 2050. It is evidenced that there are 1 billion hungry people globally. Whereas, the estimated meat consumption is 100g/day globally.
The United Nations foresees that the global population will reach ~10 billion by 2050. Thus, the consumption of animal source proteins (meat, egg, etc.) is increasing gradually. It is well-known that food consumption and production are interrelated with each other. However, the production patterns depend upon various factors, such as global population, compromised environment, and animal health. Therefore, it is imperative to overview multiple aspects of the production patterns.
Production pattern Overview
It is estimated that the animal products demand will be increased up to 70% by 2050. The primary food supplying products are driven by livestock or vegetable oils (plants). At the same time, the livestock/poultry industry plays a vital role in sustainable development, ensuring food security, livelihood, and employment opportunities.
Various pitfalls are associated with the intensification of the poultry/animal sector. These include environmental (gaseous emissions or ecosystem damage), compromised animal welfare, and human/animal health (i.e., zoonotic diseases) issues. All the previously mentioned consequences have negatively impacted food production patterns. Therefore, it is urged to make the livestock/poultry production systems more efficient to ensure sustainable production patterns which practices low resources consumption.
Maximization of the Production
Production patterns mainly focus on 'the more production having the lesser means' required by the livestock/poultry to become efficient in using the available resources. For this purpose, agricultural R&D focuses on enhancing productivity and efficiency of the land or capital, which are modified into marketable outputs. Thus, the application of the advanced technologies ameliorates the health delivery system and performance of the livestock or poultry ultimately, improving their productivity. Moreover, the optimized efficiency of a livestock/poultry production system also decreases the intensity of the GHG emission. Thus, it is evident that such a system improves productivity, profitability, and environmental outcomes. Therefore, it is concluded that the efficiency synergizes the productivity and economic gains at the cost of environmental gains, and as stated in previous articles in this series, the healthier the livestock/poultry, the smaller the resources required to raise them.
Applications of the latest technologies
Various innovative automation is developed to tackle the problems linked with increased food production while minimizing the food wastes or negative consequences of the production. The latest technologies e.g. sensors which are involved in the generation of the data concerning to the environmental situations which encounters the agricultural crops while they are processed, stored, harvested and distributed. These sensors-based technologies aimed to monitor the crops along with their treatment.
Moreover, the information perceived by these technologies is utilized to optimize food quality while improving food security via the life cycle assessment of these products. In addition to the sensors, AI-powered tools also provide a continuously updated ecological footprint (e.g., water/CO2 emissions, water consumption). Moreover, the implication of big data also improves the life cycle assessments of food products while estimating energy consumption. Thus, it is concluded that all these latest technologies enhance the sustainability of food production and consumption while assuring food security.
Moreover, these latest technologies (sensors, AI tools, IoT, etc.) facilitate the surveillance and inteligence system of the poultry production farms. Hence, they monitor the production environment, which aims to anticipate the various diseases of production farms which halts the productivity and profitability of the poultry farmers.
Role of early disease detection to pursue SDG-12
It has already been described that the latest technologies (sensors, AI-tools or IoT, etc.) play a significant role in upgrading disease surveillance systems. Thus, it is a key driver to better the animal/poultry health and behavior, ultimately their production potential. Therefore, it facilitates improving food security while decreasing the economic impact of the production disease. Whereas, the early detection of diseases assists the farmers in making strategic decisions for the prevention of the disease.
Moreover, the prevention of the diseases can restrict the transmission of the pathogenic microorganisms of the animal to humans (zoonotic diseases) and ensure appropriate food security. Hence, SDG-12 encompasses the sustainable consumption and production. It is well established that early disease detection and prevention strategies assure improved food security and productivity. Therefore, in compliance with SDG-12, it ensures the sustainable consumption and production of these animal source diets.
To sum up
The livestock/poultry sector is explicitly demanding to ensure food security. The SDG-12 is associated with sustainable consumption and production and aims to "do better and more with less." Thus, the main goal is to enhance the welfare gains of animals, followed by reducing the used resources. However, unsustainable consumption and production may compromise the efficient use of the resources. It also entails economic opportunities in addition to environmental damage and health problems. Thus, the latest technologies (sensors, AI-tools or, IoT, etc.) improve food production and consumption sustainability while assuring food security. These technologies also ameliorate the surveillance system of the poultry production farms. Hence, they monitor the production environment and anticipate the various diseases of production farms which halts the productivity and profitability of the poultry farmers, and this in fact what YieldX's active biosecurity platform does.