Document type: Press release published on the INRAE website
Authors: Christian Ducrot, Xavier Fernandez
Summary: Livestock farming is essential for the transition to sustainable agroecological systems. Given this, livestock farming conditions are of growing interest to both society and farmers, particularly in terms of their impact on the environment and animal health and welfare. A scientific group from INRAE sets out its vision of the research that will be required to support the transition to sustainable livestock production systems, in an article published in Animal. Animal health and welfare need to be at the center of all research questions. They must include every link in the food supply chain: from the animal to the farm and, more widely to local areas, also incorporating agri-food chains and systems. This calls for an interdisciplinary approach in which the animal, veterinary and agronomic sciences are combined with the social and economic sciences. Farmers, local stakeholders and the general public must all be brought together in a participatory research process to build sustainable livestock farming systems that take into account their cost, acceptability and impact on farmers' working conditions and well-being.
