The role of animal products in balancing food baskets for Laos and the Pacific islands of Samoa and Vanuatu to minimise caloric and hidden hunger: a review
P. C. Wynn
A * , D. Kongmanila B , S. Bani C and F. Pasefika-Seuao D
A
B
C
D
Abstract
The ability of farming communities worldwide to provide balanced diets for the growing world population is enunciated clearly in the second of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals, namely ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’. Success will be dependent on our ability to preserve the economic sustainability of livestock production in small-holder farming systems which will require regenerative approaches to reverse land degradation and retain biodiversity. Animal products are important components of world food baskets because their nutrient profile most closely resembles the dietary requirements of mankind. Key micronutrients, including iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, zinc and iodine, are more readily available from animal-sourced foods, which are critical for a balanced diet for those with higher nutrient requirements such as growing children and pregnant and lactating women. The developing Asian economy of Laos, together with that of the Pacific Island nations of Vanuatu and Samoa provide some interesting contrasts in servicing the nutritional needs of their predominantly rural populations as their respective governments address the issues of undernutrition and hidden hunger. The paper explores some of the challenges that governments face in sustaining resilient animal production to supply essential nutrients for food baskets across our region. These include the broader contexts of resource availability, education, cultural traditions, socioeconomic status, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Keywords: animal products, farmers, food baskets, global warming, green-house gas, hidden hunger, micronutrients, small holder, sustainability.
Introduction
Animal-sourced foods have comprised an important component of man’s diet for over 2 million years as man’s brain developed to form 2% of bodyweight consuming 20% of dietary energy intake. Given that man’s gastrointestinal tract is small relative to other metabolically expensive organs, it demands a supply of nutrient-dense high-quality food as would have been supplied by the muscle mass of other animals (Aiello and Wheeler 1995). Animal-sourced foods provide rich sources of vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin, calcium, iron and zinc, all of which are critical for child growth and development. They also help prevent a range of pathologies, including anaemias, rickets, night blindness, neuromuscular and psychiatric disorders and cognitive function (Murphy and Allen 2003).
The role that animal-based foods can play in feeding our global population must be assessed more in relation to the provision of balanced diets rather than contributing to the total quantum of the world food supply. Hunger has previously been defined as the number of people suffering caloric deficiency in their diet. However it is now recognised that more than double this number suffer from specific micronutrient deficiencies, so-called hidden hunger (Grebner et al. 2014). The mapping of the global food supply of significant micronutrients together with sources of dietary energy and protein helps us with the allocation of food resources to the neediest populations.
A careful analysis of recommended nutrient intakes relative to their availability for 11 key nutrients over 156 countries (Wang et al. 2023) has identified major global deficiencies in vitamin A, vitamin B12, calcium, iron and zinc, with a predominance identified in Africa and southern Asia, whereas limitations in energy and protein availability are confined largely to the African continent. In comparing the prevalence of iron, zinc and vitamin A deficiencies in Laos and the western Pacific islands, the highest rates of deficiency have been observed in Laos, with much lower but still significant rates in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Samoa (Muthayya et al. 2013).
In analysing the effectiveness of nutrient redistribution to meet these deficiencies through global trade, supplying adequate protein, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and zinc could potentially nourish up to 11, 10.7, 16.8 and 4.5 billion additional people respectively (Wood et al. 2018).
The most valuable foods capable of meeting these deficiencies were milk, eggs and meat, whereas vegetables contributed more evenly across the spectrum of micronutrients, including higher levels of vitamin C.
A logical solution for meeting nutrient adequacy of most low/lower–middle income countries (~40% of the global population), in particular, to meet demand for vitamins A and B12, is to trade in animal products. However mean imports into these countries, in adequacy terms, were, on average, 70% lower than those of upper–middle/high-income countries (Geyik et al. 2021).
Responses in undernourished communities to the addition of meat and milk products has not always been as promising as hoped. For example, in rural Kenya, the addition of meat and milk products significantly decreased vitamin B12 deficiency after 1–2 years of supplementation (McLean et al. 2007), but without improving the status of iron, zinc, vitamins A and B12 or riboflavin in the population (Siekmann et al. 2003).
The most easily distributed food sources such as the staple grains are most often the least effective in meeting micronutrient deficiencies in undernourished populations such as in sub-Saharan Africa (Wood et al. 2018). And yet, disruption of trade in these commodities is the most frequently accentuated in world news forums. Food production and its distribution is a complex continuum involving significant wastage along the food chain from production, handling and storage, processing, distribution and consumption (Wang et al. 2023). Wastage amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes or one-third of the world’s food supply valued at US$1 trillion (World Food Programme 2020). These losses must be built into any policy designed to counteract hidden hunger.
Is there a role for biofortification?
The adoption of biofortification strategies to compensate for micronutrient deficiencies has been proposed as a panacea for hidden hunger. The four main strategies used involve microbe-mediated bio-fortification, plant-breeding techniques and both agronomic and genetic approaches (Kaur et al. 2020; Tiwari et al. 2020). Deficiencies in soils and crops across the globe in zinc, boron, manganese, copper, iron, selenium, cobalt and molybdenum provide adequate scope for exploitation of these technologies, and biofortified crops are currently being assessed widely in central and south America, Asia and Africa (Monika et al. 2023). The value of this approach to resolving undernutrition has been questioned on the basis that the substantial investment in biofortification has diverted much needed funding from more difficult, although ultimately more sustainable efforts to improve the overall diversity of diets (van Ginkel and Cherfas 2023). However, recent reviews have highlighted the utility of the advances in genetic technology to breed crops capable of supplying nutrients deficient in diets of populations in both advanced and developing economies (Li et al. 2024; Zulfiqar et al. 2024). Yet, gains in breeding for increased micronutrient content have often been achieved with significant loss in yield and genetic diversity within a staple crop’s genome, thus increasing susceptibility to disease. The prevalence of southern corn blight (Bipolaris maydis), resulting in the loss of ~15% of the hybrid maize crop in the USA in the early 1970s, was caused by the pleiotropic effects of a single cytoplasm-based allele conferring male sterility, which was introduced into the maize parental lines of more than 85% of the hybrid maize crop to make hybrid seed production easier and cheaper (Bruns 2017).
However, there are some success stories with the addition of micronutrients to staple foods, including one study of non-pregnant females (18–49 years of age) and children (3–7 years) in Gaza City and Hebron, in which wheat flour was fortified with vitamin D and vitamin B12 decreased but failed to eliminate intake inadequacies (Abdeen et al. 2015). However, there was a recognition that additional thiamine, folic acid and zinc were also required.
Today, progress towards food security and nutrition targets is largely trending in the wrong direction. At the global level, both the absolute number of undernourished people and the prevalence of undernourishment have been increasing since 2017. It is difficult to see how mankind can achieve its 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets at the global level, given that 693 million people were chronically hungry in February 2024 across 87 countries (World Food Programme 2024). This crisis of undernutrition covers both macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) (Willett et al. 2019). Advances in these technologies may help resolve some of these challenges much more effectively than does producing perishable animal products and then distributing them to global areas of need.
Animal production’s broader roles
Not only are animal-sourced foods important for meeting nutrient deficiencies, but the animals also themselves can contribute significantly to our environmental sustainability. Within any grazing system, livestock can increase organic matter, improve soils structure and contribute to the microbial diversity and activity, thereby increasing drought resilience and decreasing pests and disease (Paul et al. 2023). The increase in soil carbon and decrease in nitrogen leaching also increase the likelihood for higher-yielding crops from the same soil profile.
The ownership of animals implies social status for livestock farmers in small-holder farming communities, while providing a means for women to engage in entrepreneurial activities associated with the sale of animal products (Batool et al. 2014). The importance of the roles of women in animal production is recognised world-wide, although it is complicated by social difference associated with religion and caste and socioeconomic status (Gomersall et al. 2023).
Animals also act as a financial resource used by their owners as a form of savings that can be used in times of need for social obligations including weddings, funerals and when ill health is encountered by the family. Small-scale rearing of production animals for sale may provide the sole source of income for a farmer to purchase other food items such as rice, meat, maize, fish, vegetables, cooking oil, beans, sugar, and salt and non-food items, as has been shown in Malawi (Banda et al. 2021).
Animal production and global warming
Despite these multiple roles in communities world-wide, animal production has been criticised for its contribution to greenhouse-gas output and global warming. The magnitude of this contribution has varied between 8% and 51%, depending on the variables used in the calculation (Herrero et al. 2011). Yet, a closer evaluation of the relationship between the intensity and yield of animal products shows that higher productivity is associated with a lower environmental impact with a greater level of production (Eisner et al. 2017). Thus, the most efficient global dairy producers (e.g. New Zealand, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States) are able to produce one kilogram of fat- and protein-corrected milk, with a footprint of less than 1 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). By contrast, this efficiency dropped up to six-fold with a decrease in the quality of the feed base for the herd (Mazzetto et al. 2022). Methane from enteric fermentation predominates in grazing systems, whereas more intensive feeding results in high contributions from manure management, feed production and fertiliser use. However, it is important not to forget the significant contribution of methane as biogas collected from animal excrement, as a source of clean energy for domestic use in many developing-country communities (Aberilla et al. 2020), including Laos (Vongvisith et al. 2018). Samoa (United Nations 2024) and Vanuatu.
It could be argued that the contribution of animal-sourced carbon emissions from the small developing Asian–Pacific economies reviewed here are insignificant in a global context. It should be recognised that the primary objective of any animal enterprise is to maximise feed conversion ratio, which, as evidenced above, carries with it the advantage of decreasing greenhouse-gas output.
The provision of high nutrient-value animal products to these countries from advanced economies through world trade is limited (Geyik et al. 2021). This is further disrupted during times of global upheaval, such as was the case with the covid pandemic (Laborde 2020) and current political insurrection, with many countries placing restrictions on exports of key products to conserve for domestic use. The cost of transport to the global carbon economy is important here and often not considered. The demand for animal products to minimise micronutrient deficiencies associated with hidden hunger, therefore, must be met through domestic production where possible. This is particularly relevant to the relatively isolated Pacific Island nations, but equally important for Laos. Although greenhouse-gas emissions from production animal systems are significant, the recent development of seaweed dietary additives for ruminant species have now been shown to inhibit methane expulsion, with reports varying up to 90% (Black et al. 2021).
Caution must be taken in relying entirely on carbon-footprint estimates emanating from animal industries. These are largely based on the global environmental burdens or attributions belonging to an industry and its products, a so-called attributional life-cycle assessment (LCA). An estimate of how the global environmental burdens are affected by the production and use of the product, or consequential LCA, may better reflect the value of any product (Ekvall 2019). Again, this approach is important for animal production in isolated countries, where local foods from animal production will have a much higher consequential value.
A universal dietary system capable of eliminating global micronutrient deficiencies in 2 billion people while addressing the caloric deficit evident in 77% of all nations, which also accounts for the imperative of global warming, has been developed as the EAT-Lancet sustainable-food initiative (Willett et al. 2019).
Although this appears to be ambitious, if achievable, this system will assist all countries in addressing their SDGs by minimising the environmental impacts of their food system, as well as allowing for regional and cultural dietary differences. The partial substitution of plant protein for animal-protein sources allows 11 small countries to supply an EAT-Lancet balanced diet from domestic sources. The question then arises about the balance of these contributions to global warming, relative to their ability to resolve many of the micronutrient deficiencies that are the cause of global hidden hunger. In further analysing our ability to resource domestically sourced EAT-Lancet diets on a global scale, southern and Southeast Asia and Africa (both North and sub-Saharan Africa) host the majority of nations incapable of domestically sourcing these diets from their agricultural lands, accounting for 37 of these nations (Navarre et al. 2023). Yet, with improvements in crop yields, a marked decrease in food wastage and the adoption of a pescatarian diet, only some Saharan countries have too little land to raise sufficient food to meet the requirements for the EAT-Lancet diets. Reducing food wastage is a major factor for Southeast Asian and Pacific Island countries (Navarre et al. 2023). Yet, there is no indication that global meat consumption is likely to decrease for the foreseeable future, simply because of consumer preferences world-wide (OECD-FAO 2023); thus, implementation of EAT-Lancet diets remains in the realm of the hypothetical. Clearly, other solutions to increased greenhouse-gas production need to be pursued more rigorously.
Evidence for the presence of deficiencies in dietary mineral and vitamin synonymous with hidden hunger in the three focal countries of this review is provided in Table 1. The countries chosen represent the highest incidence reported (Sierra Leone) and the lowest (Cuba) for developing economies in this survey. Whereas hidden hunger is most prevalent in African and southern Asian countries, it represents a major public health challenge for Laos, Vanuatu and Samoa.
| Country | HHI DALYs per 100,000 population | DALYs per 100,000 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron deficiency | Vitamin A deficiency | Zinc deficiency | |||
| Sierra Leone | 5870 | 461 | 2835 | 2574 | |
| Laos | 612 | 44 | 375 | 193 | |
| Vanuatu | 146 | 46 | 83 | 17 | |
| Samoa | 151 | 73 | 62 | 15 | |
| Cuba | 15 | 8 | 4 | 3 | |
Source: Muthayya et al. (2013).
The contribution of animal products to food baskets
Laos
Although the economy of Lao PDR has improved over recent decades, with important steps in economic development being achieved, serious undernutrition remains a major challenge for the incumbent government according to the 2021 global hunger index (von Grebmer et al. 2021). Almost 3% of children under 5 years of age are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, although this figure varies from 0.7% to more than 8%, depending on the province (Lao Statistics Bureau 2018). Regrettably, this situation is not improving in particular in rural regions.
Meat production is derived from buffalo, beef cattle, poultry and swine, maintained on small-holder farms reared using traditional practices with associated low productivity (Napasirth and Napasirth 2018). Annual pork consumption was highest at 9.31 kg/head, followed by beef at 7.29 kg/head and poultry meat at 4.21 kg/head, all of which are well below that of most other countries. Fisheries are also an integral part of the lives of rural people, providing a major part of their animal-protein and micro-nutrient intakes, as well as being an important source of secondary income for a large proportion of the population (FAO 2023).
A national cross-sectional survey of nutritional status identified clearly insufficient intakes of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3 and C, along with calcium and iron and, surprisingly, dietary fibre, whereas an excess of dietary sodium was prevalent across the entire cross-section of communities irrespective of age (Ratsavong et al. 2020). In spite of this, at least some animal protein is consumed nearly 6 days in every week, although a significant proportion of this is derived from hunting for wild species in many regions. The national consumption of dairy products is confined to 1 day per week (World Food Programme 2022).
However, meat production in Laos is hampered by its high greenhouse-gas emissions intensity for cattle production, being the highest in Southeast Asia at 102.9 CO2eq/kg of meat produced, compared with the average global meat emissions intensity of 33 CO2eq/kg (Windsor et al. 2023). The introduction of anthelmintic-medicated molasses blocks containing urea to supplement the low-quality forages available on small-holder farms has resulted in impressive gains in productivity, with increases of up to 35% in milk production, along with a significant suppression of greenhouse-gas output by up to half a tonne with each block used (Windsor and Hill 2022). Using this product, international businesses can purchase verified United Nations SDG/carbon credits from the Australian commercial manufacturer of these blocks, AgCoTech, with the proceeds funding the provision of the blocks to small-holder farmer families at no charge (AgCoTech 2023).
In spite of the relatively low national levels of meat consumption, the government is taking an aggressive approach to the development of export markets for up to 15,000 t of beef per year, together with associated increases in forage production. This will be accompanied with a boost in pig crossbreeding programs for domestic pork supplies, along with more poultry meat (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 2015). Lao goat meat is also highly sought after in Vietnam where it earns a 30% premium over local product and in some surveyed areas can earn up to 17% of the household income for small-holder farmers through improvements in forage growing, use of mineral blocks and better disease surveillance and treatments (ACIAR 2023).
Samoa
The economic modernisation and rapid urbanisation experienced by the Samoan community have been accompanied by a gradual abandonment of their traditional dietary food basket, containing a high intake of seafood, coconut products, and local fruits and vegetables, and replacing them with white and red meat, processed meat, and other high-fat, store-bought imported foods (Keighley et al. 2007). These have included pizza, cheeseburgers, margarine, sugary drinks, desserts, snacks, egg products, noodles, nuts, breads and cakes. This trend has been exacerbated by the stagnation in domestic agricultural production associated with devastating cyclones in the early 1990s (Seiden et al. 2012). Lower-priced chicken meat comprised 87% of all meat consumed in 2012–2013, imported largely from the USA, although up to 1500 t of fresh chilled beef has been imported annually by 2017 (Waldron et al. 2019).
The increased consumption of imported non-traditional Western staples has been seen as a symbol of social status in Samoa (Seiden et al. 2012). In addition, the desire for countries to maintain their membership of global trade organisations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) may have encouraged smaller nations to maintain open national markets to other nations’ exports, irrespective of the quality of the imported products (Hughes and Lawrence 2005).
This nutritional transition has been associated with an epidemiologic transition, marked by increasing prevalence of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome (Wang et al. 2017). The incidence of anaemia through dietary iron deficiency has risen markedly in recent times (Kemmer et al. 2008). Polynesians are at particularly high risk for obesity relative to other populations, with average body mass index of 32.2 kg/m2 for women and 29.2 kg/m2 for men, compared with global averages of 24.2 kg/m2 and 24.4 kg/m2 (Arslanian et al. 2020). The incidence of Type 2 diabetes can be exacerbated by trace mineral deficiencies (Mangal et al. 2024), which are often difficult to detect within these communities. However, more than half of 2–4-year olds were not receiving the recommended dietary allowance for calcium (59.0%), while this group was not meeting the recommendation for potassium (44.6%), vitamins A (25.9%) and E (25.6%). Remarkably, 80% exceeded the tolerable upper limit for sodium (Choy et al. 2018a). These deficiencies were more apparent among urban residents as part of the adoption of the westernised diets, whereas they were less apparent in rural-based families of lower socio-economic status (Choy et al. 2018b).
A careful costing of food baskets supplying adequate energy, protein, fat, sodium, vitamin A and iron intake, as well as recommended intakes of total dietary fibre, vitamins C and E, and the recommended share of food energy from carbohydrates has been conducted and found to be US$3.23 per person per day. This was more expensive than the food poverty line price of US$2.17 established for Samoa in 2015 (Martyn et al. 2017). This objective could be met readily with a diet based on taro, chicken pieces, bread, pumpkin, canned mackerel (eleni) and coconuts (popo), with all being supplied locally except for canned mackerel (Martyn et al. 2017).
A recent survey of a typical household with two parents working identified some of the contemporary family issues influencing diet, which are readily identifiable in any developed economy. Frozen chicken-leg quarters are the most consumed meat in both urban and rural family homes because they are cheap, easy to process (defrost and cut chicken-leg quarter pieces) and quick to cook. After working lengthy work hours in a government office or on a rural plantation, time is limited for food preparation and so a choice for a ready-to-eat meal from a fast-food restaurant becomes attractive. However for the dinner menu at home, the meat preference for chicken can be substituted with tinned or fresh fish or processed chicken frank sausages, presumably with a high salt content (Pasefika-Seuao 2023).
Although indigenous poultry species are often reared in back-yard settings, the convenience of purchasing frozen product often out-weighs the time taken for domestic carcass processing; however, the flavour of the indigenous product is most often preferred by the older generation (Pasefika-Seuao 2023).
Local and imported beef is supplied through supermarkets and is also available as part of a jointed carcass for celebratory occasions ‘faalavelave’ such as weddings, funerals and community ceremonies. Pork or the traditional 1.5 kg broiler chicken are popular and may be consumed more than once a week with many families. More expensive mutton and turkey tails with a high fat content are mostly reserved for the Sunday to’onai (Sunday lunch after church) or prepared for guests or for feasting on special occasions (F. Pasefika-Seuao, pers. comm.). The other source of protein comes from fresh eggs purchased from the local supermarkets at $6–$8 tala/dozen.
Novel approaches to combating hidden hunger are underway in Samoa. Recently, the nutritional value of two indigenous species of seaweed, Caulerpa and Halymenia, have been assessed for inclusion in Samoan diets and have been shown to assist in overcoming dietary deficiencies in iodine, magnesium and potassium (Partners in Research for Development 2023).
Vanuatu
As in many of the Pacific nations, land-based animals and birds became extinct through hunting, and so meat contributed very little to their indigenous food bowl consisting largely of seafood, island fruits, coconuts, and the introduction of taro, yam, and sweet potato (Hughes and Marks 2010).
The impact of globalisation and the importation of high fat-content foods including meat and alcohol and processed soluble carbohydrates have not had the same dramatic effects on energy intake as in Samoa and most other Pacific nations. The increase in fat intake between 1963 and 2000 was less than 5% in Vanuatu, as compared with more than 65% is Fiji and French Polynesia (Hughes and Lawrence 2005). Nevertheless, the intake of energy-dense, processed, imported foods continues to increase in place of the traditional diet of nutrient-dense local foods, with a resultant increase in micronutrient deficiencies.
This is partly due to the reduced availability of agricultural land as urbanisation increases, with 30% of households in Vanuatu not having access to land for traditional subsistence agriculture (United Nations Children’s Fund Pacific 2012). However, of major concern is the high level of food insecurity in school-going adolescents, which had increased to more than 60% by 2017 (Smith et al. 2023) Alarmingly, the comparable statistic for Samoa is close to 80%, whereas for a range of Southeast Asian countries, it varies between 30% and 50% (Smith et al. 2023).
Dietary imbalance leading to life-style metabolic diseases is thought to cause over 60% of all deaths in Vanuatu. So as to balance national dietary deficiencies common throughout the population, the government introduced its first livestock-management policy in 2016. A ban on the slaughter of female cattle has instigated a program for the distribution of small numbers of pigs, goats, ducks and chickens to boost small-holder farm meat production (Cowley et al. 2020).
Beef production has long been of importance to small-holder farmers of Vanuatu who own 40% of the national herd (Cardno. 2014) of approximately 115,000 predominantly beef cattle (Cole et al. 2019). Yet, they contribute less than 10% of all cattle entering the formal beef market. Vanuatu’s climate, disease-free status, and established beef-processing sector provide a favourable setting for the further development of the beef industry to meet growing domestic and international demand for beef products. The scope for an increase in processing is evidenced by the large commercial abattoirs currently operating at less than 50% capacity, whereas urban butchers/retailers are unable to source desired product in sufficient quantities to meet demand. This is thought to be due to the poor productivity of the small-holder farming sector (Cole et al. 2019).
Due to its higher domestic production, beef forms a greater proportion of meat intake in Vanuatu than in Samoa, but is comparable to the intake in Laos (Table 2). However, a significant proportion of this intake is accounted for by special community ceremonies including weddings, funerals and other celebratory events.
| Beef | Pork | Poultry | Sheep/goat | Other meat | Seafood | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanuatu | 9.14 | 13.18 | 20.90 | 0.12 | 0.09 | 30.16 | |
| Samoa | 7.94 | 20.10 | 75.58 | 2.54 | 0 | 44.20 | |
| Laos | 8.79 | 14.15 | 6.45 | 0.38 | 0.06 | 25.56 | |
| World average | 9.35 | 13.89 | 16.96 | 1.98 | 0.66 | 20.03 | |
| Australia | 26.34 | 25.22 | 49.40 | 8.49 | 0.70 | 24.28 |
Source: FAO (2021a).
Note: Data refer to meat ‘available for consumption’. Actual consumption may be lower after correction for food wastage.
In spite of the perceived adequacy of meat consumption, non-communicable disease, including circulatory disease, diabetes, neoplasm, and chronic respiratory disease, has accounted for 52% of premature deaths in adult males and 60% in females (Carter et al. 2016). In this case, micronutrient deficiencies are not only related to the preference for poor-quality imported high-fat and -salt foods, but also to an insufficient intake of fruit and vegetables, with an adequate supply costing up to 41% of total household expenditure (Jones and Charlton 2015). This places them beyond the reach of many urban-based families. Adolescent milk intake is also below that considered adequate for micronutrient sufficiency (Novotny et al. 2022).
Developing an effective climate policy agenda: where to from here?
The Pacific Island nations vary significantly in their socio-cultural, economic, geographic and natural features. Yet, they are subjected to many commonalities, including geographic isolation, limited and often poorly drained arable land, small but growing populations, expanding urbanisation, small economies serviced by inadequate administrations, unique geological and biodiversity attributes and a very high susceptibility to natural hazards (FAO 2021b).
Leaders of the Pacific Island nations have met to develop plans to increase the resilience of food production across the region, with the aim of coping with the increasing threats associated with climate change. These plans and initiatives include increasing appropriate local agricultural production, such as agroforestry, promoting the health benefits of traditional diets including fruits and vegetables, increasing access to the rich tuna resources of the region for local consumption and developing pond aquaculture, while conserving catchment vegetation to maintain soil quality and safeguarding coastal fish habitats (Bell and Taylor 2015). The cost of healthy foods continues to increase, whereas food wastage through loss of high nutritional value perishables remains a problem (Farrell et al. 2020).
High-level policy platforms such as the 18-member Pacific Islands are active in developing policies that improve the resilience of domestic food industries and decrease reliance on imported foods (PIFS 2023). Despite this structure, limitations in food policy translation across the region still exist, and so more effective governance for regional food systems is required (Patay et al. 2024).
The development of land-use policy in Laos is government controlled, and therefore reliant on effective decision-making and communication among the various federal ministries, policy formulators, and societal groups operating at local levels (Hiedanpaa et al. 2023). The cause of hidden hunger for any specific trace mineral in any community group cannot necessarily be resolved through any government intervention. Selenium (Se) hidden hunger affects 2 billion people across the developing world (Jones et al. 2017) and results from an innate deficiency within community food baskets. Across eastern Asia including Laos, 70% of rice paddy fields yield rice low in Se. Yet, supplementation of soils with Se may not overcome the preferential sequestration of this element into roots or the binding capacity of iron oxide, which is high in many soil profiles (Ma et al. 2024). Similarly, the flooding of paddy fields decreases Se availability (Ma et al. 2023), suggesting a possible adoption of dryland cropping practices to alleviate the deficiency in rice crops (Williams et al. 2009).
This provides just one example where simple adjustments to agronomic practices can alleviate deficiencies in communities dependent on rice as their staple food. Thus, although all sources of meat and dairy products supply sufficient Se to supplement diets (McNaughton and Marks 2002), the need for their production or importation would require careful analysis before implementing.
In each case where animal production is a focus, the content of food baskets needs to be balanced carefully to meet community nutritional requirements. If a reduction in green-house production is also achieved, then this provides an additional environmental benefit (Windsor and Hill 2022). However, in the case of these three struggling developing economies, this must not be the key priority for their governments.
Animal production: its future
The key animal products of meat and milk are universally considered to be the greatest contributors to the greenhouse-gas output from agriculture through the environmental cost of enteric methane production, with meat alone contributing 72–78% of this amount (Springmann et al. 2018). The universal push to encourage lower meat consumption, in particular in developed economies, has gained momentum (Moosburger et al. 2023), even when the nutritional value of foods is incorporated into the equation (Clark et al. 2022).
The socioeconomic importance of meat and milk products within individual countries and, in particular, developing economies, including Laos and the Pacific Island nations, together with consumer preferences for these food resources, will ensure that foods of animal origin remain important contributors to global food baskets. It would seem that an additional index scoring for societal needs and uses for animal products in each community and the impact of their production on the environment of each country requires due consideration. The needs of small-holder farming communities must be at the forefront of these deliberations.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable as no new data were generated or analysed during this study.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Peter Wynn is a Guest Editor of the SAADC 2023 special issue of Animal Production Science. To mitigate this potential conflict of interest they had no editor-level access to this manuscript during peer review.
Acknowledgements
The financial support of ACIAR to support the attendance of Sergio Bani and Faalepeti Pasefika-Seuao to contribute to the SAADC2023 conference in Vientiane Capital Lao PDR is acknowledged.
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