The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FOA) wants a global livestock tax to reduce the contribution their flatulence makes to greenhouse gas emissions.

The FAO says urgent investments, major agricultural research efforts and robust governance are required to ensure the world’s livestock sector responds to a growing demand for animal products and at the same time contributes to poverty reduction, food security, environmental sustainability and human health. “The sector is consuming a large share of the world’s resources and is contributing a significant portion of global greenhouse gases emissions,” the FAO’s State of Food and Agriculture report says.

“Market-based policies, such as taxes and fees for natural-resource use or payments for environmental services, would encourage producers to ensure that livestock production is carried out in a sustainable way.

“There is a need to enhance the efficiency of natural-resource use in the sector and to reduce the environmental footprint of livestock production.”

The goal, it says, is to ensure continued growth in livestock production does not create undue pressure on ecosystems, biodiversity, land and forest resources and water quality and does not contribute to global warming.

“While some countries have made progress in reducing pollution and deforestation associated with livestock production, many more require appropriate policies and enforcement capacity,” the report says.

The FAO report stresses livestock is essential to the livelihoods of around one billion poor people. Livestock provides income, high-quality food, fuel, draught power, building material and fertiliser, thus contributing to food security and nutrition. For many small-scale farmers, livestock also provides an important safety net in times of need.

But the agency stresses the need for substantial investments and stronger institutions at global, regional, national and local levels, to ensure continued growth of the livestock sector contributes to livelihoods, meets growing consumer demand and mitigates environmental and health concerns.

“The rapid transition of the livestock sector has been taking place in an institutional void,” FAO director-general Jacques Diouf says in the foreword of the report.

“Identifying and defining the appropriate role of Government, in its broadest sense, is the cornerstone on which future development of the livestock sector must build.”