The International Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has announced that it plans to study the impact of livestock and poultry production on climate change, its first foray into environmental issues.
OIE director-general Bernard Vallat noted that there are interests that have suggested that eating fewer animal products would benefit the environment but said the issue should not be oversimplified. “It’s a question that needs to be studied with a lot of distance,” he said.
Vallat said it must be recognized that livestock and poultry production provides the world with meat, milk and eggs and should not be cut back at a time when the world’s growing population demands and needs more protein.
Source: Feedstuff
Systemwide Livestock Programme 
December 13, 2010 at 8:04 am
Livestock started to live since the time of the Genesis. They used to depend on plants, leaves,seeds, barks and what have you. Grazing and browsing started with the existence of livestock on this earth but has never been the cause for environmental degradation and climate change. What brings climate change is the selfish utilization of the resources by man. What brings climate change is the unncesary intervention of man in the nature’s balance. I personally feel that livestock are the solutions to climate change rather than the cuase of it. My argument as I indicated earlier is their position in the nutrient recycling process and in the rejuvination of the world’s range lands. Nature has not been created with all this crisis that we see in todays world. When man creates the problem, it is not possible to make livestock accountable for it.