The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and SCRI joined forces on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute. It is the first Institute of its type in Europe and will make major, new contributions to the understanding of key global issues such as food, energy and environmental security.
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Modelling livestock production systems within the EU for the purpose of policy appraisal
J.R. Crabtree and S.M. Williams
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler,Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK.
Abstract
In order to meet the needs of policy-makers in appraising the impacts of livestock policy, one of ELPEN's first tasks was to establish exactly what these needs are. This was done by carrying out a series of interviews with policy-makers in both the European Commission (DGs VI and XI) and selected National Administrations (UK, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Greece).
The conclusions of these interviews, i.e. policy-makers' needs, can be summarised as follows:
1. Technical data, which relates different livestock systems to specific management practices. This is necessary as policy shifts its focus from production to management practices.
2. Environmental data, including the identification of meaningful new indicators and proxy indicators, which relate management practices to environmental impact.
3. Geographically specific data which enables different livestock systems to be related to specific geographical locations.
4. Compatible regional data, which enables regional policy impacts to be appraised, especially socio-economic and environmental impacts.
5. Flexible models which combine economic and structural data with environmental, socio-economic and spatial data.