What would happen if all Americans went vegan?

Re:What would happen if all Americans went vegan? by colechristensen on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @01:08PM (#15706062)

A lot of cattle is raised on semi-arid land which is essentially left in it's natural state. The land can support sparse grasses and shrubs, but no agriculture without significant irrigation. Because there is so little vegetation development the area needed per head is huge, but it's fine because the land can't and won't be used for anything else. More to the point, humans don't need this extra land for food with our without eating meat.

There might be something to be said about limiting confined animal production fed with our most fertile crop land, but the same arguments aren't relevant for all cattle production.

From an ecological perspective, you're not losing wild nature for agriculture, cattle are just displacing grazing animals which would have been there otherwise.

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Re:What would happen if all Americans went vegan? by njarboe on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @01:18PM (#15706198)

Landscapes grazed by human protected food animals are not much more "natural" than farmed landscapes. The grazing density of cattle, sheep, and goats is much higher than natural grazers and alters the ecosystems dramatically. This is mostly due to the lack of predators, which would cause the herds to move more often and have lower density. Wilderness landscapes can also have this problem when apex predators are removed and grazers eat and breed in peace. See Yellowstone and the reintroduction of the wolf.

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Re:What would happen if all Americans went vegan? by mgarfias on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @01:56PM (#15706657)

You can mimic a lot of that with rotational grazing.

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