Dairy Products and the Environmental Impact

Around the world, agriculture is of the greatest importance because it produces food foranimals and people. Livestock is the branch that produces milk and meat, which are essentialfor human consumption. It is followed by the dairy industry, whose products are an importantsource of nutrients for human nutrition. All these activities are energy-intensive. Cultivation ofthe land, then harvesting, feeding and caring for animals, milk production, milk transportationand processing are dependent on electricity and the oil industry. These activities areindispensable for food production, but they have a major impact on the environment byincreasing the carbon footprint and thus greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this review, wehave set out to discuss and raise awareness among the general public and those practicingagriculture that the livestock and dairy industries are a major source of GHGs. This is why it isnecessary to take measures to mitigate these sources by implementing strategies to reduce andbalance them, to find strategies, without giving up these activities, but to make them asprofitable as possible. In animal husbandry, the water footprint can be controlled by choosingappropriate feed rations, while in the dairy industry the largest amount of water is representedby wastewater and with a high energy consumption. However, an alternative source of energyat the farm level is the anaerobic digestion of manure and obtaining energy generated bymethane and transformed into electricity. Also, by installing solar panels at the farm level andin the processing industry, it would lead to reducing GHG emissions. Climate change broughtabout by GHGs has led to higher temperatures and a lack of rainfall, which will in time lead to ashortage of the water so necessary for agriculture and the processing industry