Identifying ways of producing pigs more sustainably: tradeoffs and co-benefits in land and antimicrobial use

Pork accounts for the largest proportion of meat consumed globally and demand is growing rapidly. Two important externalities of pig farming are land use and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) driven by antimicrobial use (AMU). Land use and AMU are commonly perceived to be negatively related across different production systems, so those with smaller land footprints pose greater risk to human health. However, the relationship between land use and AMU has never been systematically evaluated. We addressed this by measuring both outcomes for 74 highly diverse pig production systems.