Frank Mitloehner, a UC Davis professor and air quality specialist, has been tapped to chair a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization Committee tasked with gauging the environmental impact of the livestock industry.

Mitloehner will lead the committee during the first year of a three-year program to measure the carbon footprint of the industry, detail the greenhouse gas emission factor for animal feed and develop a plan for measuring other environmental pressures, like water consumption.

“By the end of three years, we’ll have a methodology that’s globally accepted, that anyone in the world can use to quantify the environmental impact of their livestock,” Mitloehner said in a UCD news release.

The governments of France, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand are represented on the committee, as well as industry organizations, like the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation and International Poultry Council, and nonprofit organizations like the World Wildlife Fund.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates worldwide meat consumption will increase nearly 73 percent and dairy consumption by 58 percent by 2050.

Mitloehner’s own research has found that, in the United States, livestock accounts for 3.4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide — compared to 26 percent for transportation.

“Transportation choices continue to be the main contribution to climate change and not, as is often depicted, food choices,” Mitloehner said. “This new program is an effort to harmonize methodologies to benchmark the environmental impact of livestock.”

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