ABSTRACT
Animal agriculture emits more greenhouse gases than the global transport sector and is the main driver of biodiversity loss. This chapter focuses on sustainability discourses in the livestock industry. More concretely, it examines how the neo-productivist ‘Livestock Revolution’ – a projected upsurge in the consumption of animal foods of around 70 percent by 2050 – should be attained by sustainable intensification. In addition, the perspective of critical animal studies posits the violent commodification of animals as a political problem. The chapter discusses how the colonial animal-industrial complex annihilates billions of animal lives, crosses planetary boundaries, and undermines social justice. Rather than a ‘natural development benefitting the poor,’ the Livestock Revolution is a form of directed change in global nutrition serving capital interests. Eventually, the chapter shows how this ‘sustainable,’ ‘modern,’ high-tech form of animal exploitation deepens the ecological, societal, and food crises.
