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Re:Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce... by cwkoss on Thursday May 31, 2018 @08:36PM (#17201558)
Killing yourself reduces your impact on the Earth by 100% - that doesn't mean it is a productive thing to do. Individual action isn't going to fix this. Each person's contribution is too small. Systemic change is the only way to address this.

Modern industrialized agriculture has a lot of issues. Other methods of agriculture can have net-negative emissions: grow all of your feedstock onsite and use waste products to produce more feedstock. If all the carbon you emit was previously captured onsite, you're only 'borrowing' carbon, not really producing it. Slightly net-negative carbon as soil is built as a byproduct. See Joel Salatin for further reading.

I think writing articles about how "You, individual, can do something to save the Earth" is ineffective moralizing not unlike Facebook posts asking to "Share this if you want to end human trafficking!" - the only tangible effect is self-promotion of the author and inflating the self-esteem of the readers who go along with it.

Re:Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce... by passiveincomelg on Friday June 01, 2018 @11:37AM (#17206313)
I read The Omnivores Dilemma and share your believe that this kind of farming seems fine. I don't know whether this would work for feeding the entire planet. Right now, farms like this are an exception anyway.

In my experience, only consuming animal products from these farms is a bigger hassle than finding vegan food.

Re:Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce... by cwkoss on Friday June 01, 2018 @02:16PM (#17208346)
Highly recommend Joel Salatin's works - he has a really interesting perspective.

Here's a talk of his on Cows and Climate Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z75A_JMBx4

From my recollected (watched that ~6 mo ago), the amount of land needed to grow food for his herd is less than the amount of land that would be needed to purchase it elsewhere, because the rotation of the animals keeps his fields fertilized and trimmed to the optimum length for fast growth. Plus, by rotating in chickens, he's double dipping a bit.

There are some people doing some interesting research into using herd animals to prep beds for annual vegetables: they let the animal graze as the seeds are starting to germinate, animals eat everything green. The germinating seeds are then able to fill the void left behind faster than anything else, because the farmer timed it properly.

Re:Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce... by passiveincomelg on Friday June 01, 2018 @09:20PM (#17212020)
Thank you for that link, very interesting! For some reason it hasn't occurred to me to Google the guy who Pollan admires so much in the book.