Livestock
Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s greenhouse gas emissions (FAO)
THE CURRENT SITUATION
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), by 2050 livestock products will double due to an increasing human population, urbanization and growing economic prosperity. This increase in livestock comes with a high price for the environment, as livestock produces a large amount of GHG through several of ways:
- Deforestation
- Animal feed production
- Animal manure
- Slurry fertilizers
At the moment the livestock sector is by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land. Grazing occupies 26 percent of the Earth's terrestrial surface, while feed crop production requires about a third of all arable land.
About 70 percent of all grazing land in dry areas is considered degraded, mostly because of overgrazing, compaction and erosion attributable to livestock activity. (FAO)
POSITIVE IMPACT
The Global Gateways waste to energy and fertilizer solutions address this problem from several angles:
a. Our plant will be able to process manure and turn it into both energy and Biochar thus sequestering the Co2 inside the Biochar for thousands of years.
b. Biochar is a proven organic soil enhancer which will reduce the need for slurry and synthetic fertilizers.
c. As feed yields increase, the amount of land needed for growing animal feed should decrease.
d. Projects to recover degraded land can be carried out using a unique combination of soil enhancers developed by Global Gateways.
A study by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China demonstrated that Biochar produced from dairy-manure was six times more effective at absorbing lead than activated carbon. (SJTU)
