Sustainability has become a buzz word in California, the agriculture power house of the US. California produces twice as much agriculture revenue as the next biggest agricultural state. It is home to over 350 different crops and 20% of US dairy. However, the state has the worst air quality in the US and has a loud group of activists seeking their own definition of sustainability and animal welfare rights.

“Our biggest achilles heel is the food waste, 40% of all food produced in the US goes to waste. What I find shocking is that number holds true globally, even in developing countries,” Professor Frank Mitloehner from UC Davis told California’s first dairy sustainability challenge.

Demand for animal protein will grow by 70%

With the world’s population set to reach 10 billion by 2050, California is also seeking out ways to feed the additional people without an increase in natural resources.

“Demand for meat and milk is growing. Demand for animal protein will grow by 70%. The more money people make, the more likely they are going to move their dietary patterns to a more animal based diet,” Mitloehner said.

He added that much of the facts activists use to encourage people to switch to a plant based diet come from a 2006 report called ‘Livestock’s long shadow’. Mitleohner and a team of grad students compiled a further report refuting its claims. He says the methodology was flawed because while it used the full life cycle of animal production, when it looked at the transport sector it just looked at exhaust fumes.

“A classic apple and orange comparison. The authors admitted we were right. The problem is that all the people who loved ‘livestocks long shadow’ were desperate because their main argument was lost. The authors retracted key findings but critics held on to it.

“This industry has been too quiet for too long. There is an alliance of organisations out there hitting on animal production in a way I have never seen before.”

California is battling major water availability issues

According to figures from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transport makes up 25% of emissions, agriculture accounts for 9% and within that animal agriculture is 4%.

The world’s population still needs to be fed and Mitloehner says the way forward is efficiency. He says America is the most carbon efficient producer of a litre of milk in the world.

“We produce so much milk per cow per year that our relative GHG emissions is the smallest in the world. Production intensities and emission intensities have a direct relationship. One cow here produces 20 times more than a cow in India.”

This is due to improvements in reproductive efficiency, vet practices, genetics of plants and animals and more energy intense diets.

In 1950 there were 25m dairy cows in the US, today there are nine million cows producing 60% more milk.

That said, California is battling major water availability issues. The state is subsidising the installation of anaerobic digesters to help improve the environmental credentials of its dairy industry.