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Paper short abstract:

Dairy production in Argentina is intensifying under economic pressure, but with it come labour, health and environmental challenges. Focusing on any one of these challenges in isolation oversimplifies the enmeshed problems. The trends are similar globally, and require a systemic approach.

Paper long abstract:

Like many other types of agriculture and livestock farming globally, dairy production in Argentina is concentrating and intensifying under economic pressure to grow. Farms (and farmers) are facing compounding, intersecting challenges within this context, including: attracting, keeping and adapting skilled labour and good working conditions; environmental stressors and climate change, on top of pressures to reduce environmental impacts, and; maintaining and improving animal health, especially in the face of growing antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. Further, engaging with stressed farmers can be fraught with power dynamics to consider. These multiple challenges are often understood and addressed in isolation, e.g. measuring antibiotic use and getting farmers to reduce to stem resistance, new regulations to better manage polluting effluent. However, this fails to understand the systemic nature and how these issues are connected. Taking a systems thinking and one health approach, applied with sensitivity, affords understanding the complexity and interconnected nature of these global challenges. This is relevant for wider development challenges such as public health, sustainability, and inequality, as well interdisciplinary research and how we approach complex global development challenges.