Today I had the pleasure to take part in a plenary session of the EAAP- European Federation of Animal Science annual conference in Hamburg. My contribution provided an overview and update of policy developments and challenges affecting the EU livestock sector. The talk was not a direct commentary on the Commission’s Livestock Strategy published in July this year, but it addresses many of the same issues. The presentation accompanying the talk can be downloaded here, and the whole plenary session can be viewed on the EAAP YouTube channel (link to be provided later). I reproduce the talk more or less as delivered in this post.
The perfect storm
Let me begin by stating the obvious. Livestock is of major economic and political importance to the European Union.
It accounts for around 40% of agricultural value added. It generates some €400 billion in annual turnover and supports around 7 million people across the value chain.… Read the rest