This is the key address that Professor Robyn Alders gave on 10th of February in Ahmedabad, India, during the first annual One Health Poultry Hub conference.

1. Sustainable intensification of poultry production:
Sounds good, what might it mean in practice?
Robyn Alders, AO
One Health Poultry Hub, Ahmedabad; 10-14 February 2020
1. Centre for Global Health Security, Chatham House, London, UK
2. Development Policy Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
3. Kyeema Foundation, Brisbane, Australia and Maputo, Mozambique
4. Upper Lachlan Branch, NSW Farmers’ Association, Australia

2. Our challenge How do we deliver
optimal,
ethical,
safe and
sustainable diets
for 9 billion people
and domesticated
animals by 2050?

3. 1. A potential CoI

4. My dual passions, commitment to family
farming and a possible conflict of interest
Village chickens & their owners Merino sheep & regenerative agriculture

5. 2. Introduction

6. Why do we raise poultry?
Poultry
Income
Nutrition
Hobby
Pest
Control
Sport
Ceremonies

7. Defining Sustainability in the poultry farmer context
Supportive poultry productionpolicies, practices and value chains that deliver across the triple bottom
line:
Economic sustainability
✓ Fair remuneration of men and women poultry producers who are devoted stewards of
land and water and who produce safe, nutritious food and other associated natural products
✓ Fair payment of and conditions for women and men involved along value chains
✓ Delivery of safe, nutrient-rich food and other natural products at prices affordable by
consumers
Environmentalsustainability
✓ Regenerative agricultural practices that capture carbon, increase soil and water quality and
conserve and promote biodiversity
✓ Ethical use and recycling of key nutrients along value chains and food systems
Social sustainability
✓ Non-farming community trusts and values agricultural practices and value chains as fair, just
and operating in harmony with natural systems.
All through a nutrition- and gender-sensitive lens

8. The world we live in …
FAO Hunger Map 2010 WHO Obesity Map 2014
IUCN Red List for Endangered species 2014

9. The world we live in …
FAO Hunger Map 2010 WHO Obesity Map 2014
IUCN Red List for Endangered species 2014

10. Triple burden of malnutrition
Source: UNICEF 2019

11. The world we live in …
Percentage of children
aged 6–23 months fed
food groups, by type,
global in 2018
(UNICEF 2019)

12. Factors impacting on global food systems
Credit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5b/40/9d/5b409dc88bd6a6ef0194fc5314f80074.jpg
Unprecedented loss of biodiversity
(and thus less resilient ecosystems)
Emergence of new infectious and
non-infectious diseases
Climate change, weather variability
and rising ambient temperatures
globally
Need to equitably nourish increasing
human and domestic animal
populations

13. 3. Poultry & sustainable
food & nutrition security

14. Promoting nutritious, healthy food ….
Dietary
diversity?
• Poultry has been the
big winner in the white
vs red meat debate since
the 1970s …
• “Select poultry trimmed
of visible fat and
without the skin”
(Heart Foundation 2015)

15. Bigger chicken More nutritious chicken
The modern broiler
carcass – more energy
coming from fat than
protein with reduction
in omega-3 fatty acids
(Wang et al. 2009)

16. Nutrient distribution in chicken carcases (i)
Distribution of iron
amongst a whole chicken
carcass
① = Head
② = Neck
③ = Back
④ = Wing
⑤ = Giblets
⑥ = Breast
⑦ = Drumstick
⑧ = Thigh
⑨ = Feet
Chan, et al. 2017. What’s in a Chicken? Comparing the nutrient value, potential to
meet nutrient requirements and health-cost effectiveness of whole and frozen
chickens. BVSc Honours Dissertation, University of Sydney.

17. Nutrient distribution in chicken carcases (ii)
Zinc VitaminB12 VitaminA Folate
Thiamine Protein Energy
Chan et al. (2017)

18. Comparing the cost of nutrients in
different types of chicken products (i)
Chan et al. (2017)
(Muscle & bone only)

19. Comparing the cost of nutrients in
different types of chicken products (ii)
Chan et al. (2017)
Nutrient
deficiencies rarely
appear alone

20. Nutritional contributions of eggs
Yolk
+ energy
++ protein
++ choline
++ riboflavin
+ pantothenic acid
+ vitamin B6
++ vitamin B12
+ folate
+ phosphorus
++ selenium
+ zinc
Germinal disk
Air cell
Chalaza
Shell
Shell membrane
White / albumen
++ protein
+ potassium
++ selenium
For infants 7-12 months old: + 20-50% recommended daily allowance (RDA), ++ >50% RDA (Source: Iannotti et al, 2017)
Village chicken eggs more
nutritious than
commercial eggs in
Malawi (Werner, 2019)

21. No easy answers
https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21679766-poultry-excrement-
may-be-stunting-infant-development-chicken-out
Key zoonotic
diseases
Avian influenza
Salmonellosis
Campylobacteriosis

22. No easy answers in a world of limited resources
?
AMR
Competition
for
Nutrients,
Water.

23. 4. My questions to you ….

24. What is important for sustainable poultry
development?
Sustainable intensification
of what?
Is bigger and more always
better?
Is the widespread distribution of
frozen chicken carcasses
helping or hindering? Is this of any
relevance to your research?
What does sustainable production of
nutritious and safe poultry and
poultry products look like in
different settings?
What poultry products are you
tracking in your value chain
studies?
Can you contribute to reduced
competition between humans
and poultry for food suitable for
human consumption?
Who will benefit from your research?

25. The way forward and our responsibilities
“… safeguard human health
and the natural systems that
underpin it”
(Whitmee et al. 2015)
Planetary
Health
No one individual, group or sector can deliver an ethical and
ecologically sustainable human and domestic animal diets.
Together, we have to!

26. Chatham House | The Royal Institute of International Affairs 26
Bibliography
• Alders, R.G., Dumas, S.E., Rukambile, E., Magoke, G., Maulaga, W., Jong, J. and Costa, R. 2018. Familypoultry: multipleroles, systems,
challengesand optionsfor sustainablecontributionstohousehold nutritionsecuritythrough a PlanetaryHealth lens. MaternChild Nutr.
2018;14(S3):e12668, https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12668
• Alders, R.G., Ratanawongprasat, N., Schönfeldt, H. and Stellmach, D. 2018. A planetaryhealth approach tosecure, safe, sustainablefood systems:
workshop report. Food Security, 10(2):489-493DOI 10.1007/s12571-018-0780-9
• de Bruyn, J., Ferguson, E., Allmann-Farinelli, M., Darnton-Hill, I., Maulaga, W., Msuya, J. and Alders, R. 2016. Food CompositionTablesin
resource-poor settings: exploring currentlimitationsand opportunities, with a focuson animal-sourcefoodsinsub-SaharanAfrica. British Journal
of Nutrition116(10):1709-1719
• Berners-Lee, M, et al. 2018. Current globalfood productionissufficient tomeet humannutritionalneedsin 2050 provided there is radicalsocietal
adaptation. Elem Sci Anth, 6: 52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.310
• Iannotti, L. L., Lutter, C. K., Stewart, C. P., Gallegos Riofrío, C. A., Malo, C., Reinhart, G., … Waters, W. F. 2017. Eggs in early complementary
feeding and child growth: A randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016‐3459
• UNICEF. 2019. TheStateof the World’sChildren 2019. Children, Food and Nutrition:Growing wellin a changing world. UNICEF, New York.
• Werner, R. 2019. Egg preferencesand nutrient content: a comparisonofeggsfrom commercialand villagechickensin ruralMalawi. Aligning the
Food System for Improved NutritioninAnimalSourceFoodsConference, May14-15, 2019, Universityof California Davis, CA, USA. (Poster)
• Wingett, K., Allman-Farinelli, M. and Alders, R. 2019. Food loss and nutritionsecurity: reviewing pre-consumerloss in Australiansheep meat
value chainsusing a PlanetaryHealth framework. CABReviews 13, No. 033; doi: 10.1079/PAVSNNR201813033
• Whitmee, S., et al. 2015.Safeguarding humanhealth inthe Anthropoceneepoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on
planetaryhealth. TheLancet. Available: http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(15)60901-1.pdf
• Wong, J.T., de Bruyn, J., Bagnol, B., Grieve, H., Li, M., Pym, R., Alders, R.G. 2017. Small-scalepoultryin resource-poor settings: A review.Global
Food Security DOI10.1016/j.gfs.2017.04.003

27. Thank you
Chatham House | The Royal Institute of International Affairs
Comments and questions
most welcome
Email: RAlders@chathamhouse.org
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to Indian
colleagues for hosting this
meeting and to the OH Poultry
Hub for the invitation.