"Got rats?" Global environmental costs of thirst for milk include acute biodiversity impacts linked to dairy feed production

Glob Chang Biol. 2018 Jul;24(7):2752-2754. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14170. Epub 2018 May 4.

Abstract

Rodents damaging alfalfa crops typically destined for export to booming Eastern markets often cause economical losses to farmers, but management interventions attempting to control rodents (i.e., use of rodenticides) are themselves damaging to biodiversity. These damages resonate beyond dairy feed producing regions through animal migration and are an overlooked part of the transferred environmental burden caused by a growing thirst for milk in China and elsewhere.

Keywords: dairy feed (alfalfa) exports to Eastern markets; overlooked environmental burdens caused by thirst for milk; rodenticide damages resonate beyond dairy feed producing regions through animal migration; rodenticide damages to biodiversity; rodents damaging alfalfa and losses to farmers.

Publication types

  • Letter
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Distribution
  • Animal Feed
  • Animals
  • Biodiversity*
  • China
  • Crops, Agricultural
  • Dairying*
  • Europe
  • Female
  • Medicago sativa
  • Milk*
  • Rats
  • Rodent Control