Re:A no-beef diet is great – but only if you don’t replace i...
by aww_dang on Sunday May 23, 2021 @10:33AM
(#27255250)
There's a large amount of range land which is impractical for farming. However, it is suited for grazing. It was used for bison before domestic cattle.
If we conclude that bovine grazing is harmful, should we conclude that exterminating the American bison was green?
Re:A no-beef diet is great – but only if you don’t replace i...
by pkphilip on Sunday May 23, 2021 @10:23AM
(#27255189)
Cattle/livestock is also used for improving the quality/fertility of the soil for growing crops. It drastically reduces the need for harmful fertlizers, the need to till the land as much (reducing diesel usage) etc.. Also, the milk and meat is a nice bonus.
Re:A no-beef diet is great – but only if you don’t replace i...
by loceng on Sunday May 23, 2021 @11:02AM
(#27255440)
The Sacred Cow documentary is worth watching which goes into detail of this cycle - including that a lot (most?) crops use animal manure for fertilizing, so you still need the animals.
Re:A no-beef diet is great – but only if you don’t replace i...
by pkphilip on Monday May 24, 2021 @10:02AM
(#27264462)
Apart from that, livestock grazing has been used effectively to fight desertification by Allan Savory and others.
https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-l...
It is important also to note that if the land were instead used for growing crop for human consumption, then the carbon capture effect would be far higher, and that generally grass fed beef in the US are fed grain in the final months before slaughter. Other factors like water usage of cattle farming per calorie produced compared to human consumed crop can put even grass fed cattle farming in a bad light.
[1]: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is...