Integrated Crop/Livestock Agriculture in the United States: A Review

U.S. agriculture has become increasingly specialized over the last century with attendant benefits to food production and affordability. At the same time, specialized agricultural production has led to concerns for animal welfare, environmental degradation, and loss of biodiversity. An alternative to specialized agriculture is the integration of crops and livestock at the farm scale. Integrated crop/livestock agriculture could improve soil quality, increase yield, produce a diversity of foods, augment pollinator populations, aid pest management, and improve land use efficiency. Crop/livestock agriculture is not without challenges, however, as farmers must confront a history of specialization in agriculture along with loss of animal husbandry knowledge, erosion of genetic diversity, limited meat processing infrastructure, a regulatory framework more suited to specialization, and challenges inherent to animal agriculture.