Livestock keep an estimated 1.7 billion people fed, employed, or both. Yet in most conversations about ending hunger, livestock shows up only as a caveat: something to offset, scale back or work around. That framing is increasingly out of step with where the need and the opportunity actually sit: demand for meat, milk and eggs across Africa and Asia is projected to grow by as much as 200% by 2030. The open question is therefore how smallholder farmers and pastoralists in low- and middle-income countries can be best supported to sustainably meet that demand.
Getting there means moving past the same polarized fights about livestock that focus on meat versus plant-based foods, emissions versus livelihoods and building something more useful in their place: a conversation that's evidence-based and focused on solutions and action rather than picking sides. Two sessions at the upcoming World Food Prize Foundation’s 2026 Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines will tackle this discussion head on, focusing on how changes in livestock systems can help combat hunger worldwide while also protecting our planet.
A conversation that hasn't kept up with the evidence
Investment hasn't caught up either. Livestock typically receive less than 1% of total official development assistance and of climate development finance. Funders, scientists, farmer leaders and policymakers rarely make the case in the same room for closing that gap, and the agroecology, food sovereignty and social justice movements are rarely invited in at all.
The deep dive session, “Can We Change the Livestock Conversation Before Hunger Wins?” puts that question to a panel that doesn’t often share the stage:
- World Food Prize Laureate Jan Low
- Malawi's Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Hon. Roza Fatchi Mbilizi
- the SDG2 Advocacy Hub's Paul Newnham, and
- the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation's Joyce Kamau
Source : iastate.edu