Editorial: Sustainable livestock systems for high-producing animals

For an expected global population of 9.7 billion by 2050 (United Nations, 2019), major constraints and challenges to our ability to satisfy the food demand for animal proteins can be identified. The geographic heterogeneity in animal production, as well as in populations, are well documented in the literature. At the present time, according to the FAO Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM 2.0 and GLEAM-i; See http://www.fao.org/gleam/resources/en/), the East, South and Southeast Asia regions produce a high amount of animal proteins, similar to that produced by the Americas plus Europe together (approx. 29 and 33 million tonnes, respectively), while all other parts of the world produce approx. 13 million tonnes.