A Grand Challenge for Animal Science: Multiple Goals – Convergent and Divergent

Abstract

People want safe, affordable, high quality animal-derived foods, produced in ways that protect rural livelihoods and cultures and which are derived from animals that lived healthy and happy lives. These aspirations must be set alongside the overarching need to seek advances that reduce or eliminate the most negative environmental aspects of livestock production. It will be a truly Grand Challenge for animal scientists to meet these intersecting desires whilst simultaneously working with others to meet climate change goals and to conserve and restore wild habitats and biodiversity. Set within this context three broad challenges for animal scientists are outlined. The first will be to identify areas of work that have simultaneous and beneficial effects on the diverse issues that concern people. It will not be easy to find research areas that contribute holistically, but some positive examples are set out below (Challenge 1). Inevitably, however, there will be many situations where the pursuit of one objective threatens progress in another. An obvious example is how the on-farm benefits of using antimicrobials in terms of resource efficiency and farm income are outweighed by the concomitant increased risk of antimicrobial resistance for human health. The identification of this critical trade-off led the World Health Organization (2017) to call for a substantial and urgent reduction in the routine use of antimicrobials in animal production systems. In turn, this has stimulated a wealth of research into alternative methods of maintaining animal health and production (though there remains much to do; Redweik et al., 2020). Within the field of animal science, it is likely that many other unacknowledged more subtle trade-offs exist. A second challenge for researchers is therefore to identify, analyse and quantify these points of opposition and goal divergence (Challenge 2). A third challenge will be to understand better consumers' desires, knowledge and motivations. Sometimes citizens hold contradictory views about animal farming based on incomplete or inaccurate information, whilst scientists also lack insight into the attitudinal basis for consumer concerns. Dialogue and education that builds trust between different sectors of society, communities and stakeholders is needed to align goals for the future of animal science (Challenge 3).