OHRP Interdisciplinary seminar: How to do critical research on livestock systems? Key challenges of corporate concentration in animal source food production

The global flow of capital has led to unequal power dynamics and increased corporate control in the production and consumption of animal-sourced foods, known as the "meatification of diets". Industrial livestock systems have beneficial and harmful impacts, influencing food security, environmental sustainability, and social well-being. This past November 5th, Dr. Mehroosh Tak, political economist at the Royal Veterinary College UK, gave a hybrid seminar at City University of Hong Kong focusing on the need for a new research approach to studying the impact of industrial livestock production on food systems, using poultry as a case study. Attendees included CityU researchers and students, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) officers, as well as students from universities abroad, such as The University of Peradeniya and The Central Bicol State University of Agriculture in the Philippines. After the seminar, there was a one-hour discussion with Dr. Tak, where participants were able to give their points of view on this important topic.

Moreover, on the previous day, Dr. Mehroosh gave a seminar to students from the course One Health, from CityU, titled: Sustainability and Health. The goal of the seminar was for students to understand the role of the different elements involved in the food system and their importance to food security, animal and public health, as well as to weigh the trade-offs and/or co-benefits of a sustainable food system in the context of climate change, pandemics, ecosystem conservation and equity. At the end of the seminar, they discussed food production and food safety in the context of Hong Kong.

Dr. Tak is a Senior Lecturer in Agrobusiness at the Royal Veterinary College, London (https://www.rvc.ac.uk/about/our-people/mehroosh-tak), with broad experience on agricultural policies and food systems in Low and Middle-Income Countries. She is mainly interested in investigating how agricultural production systems are changing our diets, focusing on the role of public and private sector in creating conditions for corporate expansion and concentration of industrialized livestock production systems. Her most recent research has looked at financialization and corporate concentration in livestock genetics markets and how they are shifting provisioning practices for animal source foods in India and Bangladesh. She is the principal investigator for Critical Research on Industrial Livestock Systems network https://www.crils.org/.