The Boma

As the pandemic pushes global malnutrition to rates not seen in more than a decade, how can livestock products like milk, meat and eggs help? And how do we weigh the nutritional benefits of livestock, particularly in the developing world, against the fact that livestock can be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions?

In this episode of The Boma, presenters Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton talk to Lora Iannotti, a specialist in child and maternal nutrition, as they explore why context and food choices matter when it comes to avoiding malnutrition.

Award-winning holistic farmer Emma Naluyima explains how integrated farming techniques can reduce the carbon footprint of livestock farming, and gives her vision for how children can become responsible global citizens of the future.

Finally, Susan MacMillan, Emeritus Fellow at ILRI, describes her dream future for livestock in a more equitable and sustainable world.

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Criticism of animal farming in the west risks health of world's poorest - The Guardian, September 2021

New report from UN Nutrition untangles risks and benefits of food from livestock for sustainable healthy diets, focusing on challenges linked to both abundance and scarcity - ILRI, June 2021

If sub-Saharan Africa produces just 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the livestock sector just a fraction of those, why should the governments of these countries be concerned?

Because there's much more to the story. The intensity of the emissions is higher in these countries than in others, and the livestock sector is growing in size every year. In the second part of a mini-series on climate change and livestock, presenter Tim Offei-Addo speaks to ILRI scientists Polly Ericksen and Klaus Butterbach-Bahl to find out what makes these emissions so important, and what can be done about it.

Ericksen and Butterbach-Bahl explain how ILRI helps to collect data about greenhouse gas emissions in sub-Saharan Africa, equipping countries with the means to tell an accurate story of their climate emissions to the international community. 

And they warn that as developed countries vilify livestock as a major producer of greenhouse gases, this could prevent crucial investments in livestock in the developing world. Investing in livestock in sub-Saharan Africa could help mitigate emissions, help poor farmers earn a livelihood and produce more food. Is there a place for livestock to be part of the solution, and not the problem, for climate change?

Scripted by Tim Offei-Addo

How do we intensify livestock to feed the global south, but also mitigate climate emissions? Is it possible to increase livestock productivity while decreasing its environmental cost?

Tim Offei-Addo returns to the Boma to talk to three ILRI  researchers - Esther Kihoro, Todd Crane and Renee Bullock - who want the world to know that to begin to answer that question we must first understand the people who are doing the farming.

It's not enough, they say, to think up ways to reduce climate emissions from livestock. What's good for the crop farmer who needs cattle for draught will not be good for the roaming Maasai herder. If dairy production becomes more commercialised, what will happen to the women who provide so much the labor in household farms? And cattle farming is more than a means of producing milk to many people - it is embedded in their culture, essential for status, marriage, finances, and many more purposes.

Livestock systems vary greatly around the world and can enhance or harm the environment depending on how they are managed. Listen to this two-part mini-series looking at the tricky relationship between livestock and climate change.

ILRI's work on climate change adaptation and mitigation

Environment news and research

Programme for climate-smart livestock systems

Scripted by Tim Offei-Addo

One Health is traditionally defined as the collaboration of several disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment -- but what exactly does this mean, and what does it look like in practice? 

Today’s episode of The Boma features food expert Hung Nguyen, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI. Hung takes us through how his childhood in a rural area of north Vietnam sparked his interest in livestock, public health, and then One Health. One of the challenges to the One Health approach remains the collaboration of different sectors, something that Vietnam has been unusually successful at managing. Hung provides insight into Vietnam as a case study for successfully integrating One Health, and One Health as a core consideration for global health concerns.

ONE HEALTH

One Health 

Arguing the Case for Massive Investments in One Health 

ONE HEALTH AND WET MARKETS

One Health: Key to Sustainable Livestock-- and Human and Environmental -- Health 

Despite Contamination Concerns, Africa Must Embrace “Wet Markets” as Key to Food Security 

Covid-19 has had the world at a stand-still since early last year and yet we are still trying to find out how the pandemic started. Did the virus come directly from a bat, a different wild animal, was it spread by frozen food, or was it even leaked from a lab?  A report published at the end of March by the World Health Organization and a joint team of scientists begins to unravel the mystery of the origins of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.  

Tim Offei-Addo sat down with Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI, to discuss his experience traveling to Wuhan as part of the team trying to find the origins of the pandemic. 

Listen to our trailer to learn about our podcast series.

There have been over 22,000 studies on the best ways for farmers to feed their livestock. But how many have looked at whether farmers actually benefited?

Jeremy Cherfas interviews Isabelle Baltenweck, leader of the Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods, about the differences and distances between livestock researchers and livestock farmers.