Título:	Vast extension but positive outcomes, reduced but negative: complexity and nuances in evaluating land use by livestock and crops.
Autoria:	MANZANO, P. PEREIRA, M. de A. WINDISCH, W.
Afiliação:	PABLO MANZANO, BASQUE CENTRE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE; MARIANA DE ARAGAO PEREIRA, CNPGC; WILHELM WINDISCH, TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH.
Ano de publicação:	2025
Referência:	Animal Frontiers, v.15, Issue 1, p. 43-54, Feb. 2025.
Conteúdo:	Amidst the deep environmental crisis humanity finds itself in, land use change is currently identified as the largest impactor on biodiversity and ecosystem function (Jaureguiberry et al., 2022). While the most impactful and economically profitable land uses at small territorial scales are related to urbanization or mining, they affect a small portion of the global terrestrial surface. It is food production and gathering which uses the largest expanses of land, to the point of having used most of the land for the whole Holocene (Ellis et al., 2021). Food systems are therefore a large focus of the land cover debate. The global food system replicates the inverse relationship between intensity of impacts. Hunter-gathering is likely to be the food system type with lowest impact—even if having contributed to deep ecosystem transformations due to megafauna extinction (Fricke et al., 2022; Svenning et al., 2024) but also to maintaining landscape structure through controlled burning— yet it has occupied most lands during the longest time, being the dominant use since the dawn of humanity until displaced by more profitable uses a few centuries ago (Ellis et al., 2021). Conversely, croplands are the most destructive (and productive) food production system, yet even in a world of 8 billion people they just occupy 12% of emerged lands. Livestock lies in the middle, being relatively new in humanity’s history but currently being the largest land user. It also has the added complexity of making use of crop products, co-products, and byproducts, and being an enabler to them via fertilizer production and soil restoration in crop rotation
Thesagro:	Biodiversidade Produção de Alimentos Rotação de Cultura Uso da Terra
NAL Thesaurus:	Biodiversity Crop rotation Crops Food production Land use Livestock Model food systems Soil restoration
Digital Object Identifier:	https://doi.org/10.1093/af/vfae051
Tipo do material:	Artigo de periódico
Acesso:	openAccess
Aparece nas coleções:	Artigo em periódico indexado (CNPGC)