Then just a quick dismissal of goats because it's devastating to your overall point if "vegan" isn't actually the solution and no answer at all to the existence of cash-cropping other then to say 'oh yeah it's probably animal feed'.
Really? Rice is animal feed? Give me a break. There's a reason no one takes vegans activists seriously - you're as loose with the truth and reality as any politician.
What's wrong with that? Show me a similar list of papers proving that animal agriculture is the solution for our problems, and I'll happily change my viewpoint. The problem is that no such independent and peer reviewed studies (can even) exist.
> Then just a quick dismissal of goats
Yeah, I think that grazing is extremely destructive for the ecosystems. Not when you've got a single goat or two, but at the scale yes. It's not a secret that previous civilizations had environmental pressures that contributed to their collapse, and overgrazing could be one of those reasons. A lot of those previous civilizations places are now deserts. Coincidence? I'd bet not :)
> existence of cash-cropping other then to say 'oh yeah it's probably animal feed'
We would need just a fraction of resources if it were not for pastures and the need for animal feed. It's not probably, it's for sure. Again, science.
> Really? Rice is animal feed?
I never said that. I'll give you this link/graph again:
https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation#beef-soy...
Rice is 5.6%, animal ag (incl. feed) 60%.
Or are you vegan because of a moral objection to eating nervous-system bearing animals for food?
No words and social media comments can describe the sheer amount of destruction animal ag. is causing.
I learned to appreciate the moral aspect of it later. Carnism is a helluva drug.
Ranching takes 80% of the agriculture land, 50+% pastures were forested in the past.
https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation#beef-soy...
Combined, beef and oilseeds account for nearly 60% of deforestation (majority of oilseeds are mostly used for animal feed).
> goats ... can subsist off of marginal lands and foods which humans can't
That's the typical argument of animal ag farmers. That land should be rewilded and afforested, to enable return of the wildlife.
Goats and grazing are a recipe for desertification:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09596836166704...
Blame it on the goats? Desertification in the Near East during the Holocene
https://grist.org/climate-energy/cattle-grazing-is-a-climate...
Cattle grazing is a climate disaster, and you’re paying for it
https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/grazed-and-co...
Grazed and Confused?
> Veganism has nothing to do with biodiversity loss though
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/
Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...
Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-climate-crisis-biodiversity-ap...
The climate crisis and biodiversity crisis can't be approached separately, says study
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22287498/meat-wildlife-bi...
The way we eat could lead to habitat loss for 17,000 species by 2050
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4
In terms of carbon sequestration and dealing w/ climate, it is clear that agricultural land use(especially land used for animal feed) is the largest barrier to ecosystem restoration. Potential for carbon sequestration is enormous (literally enough for the entire 1.5C carbon budget)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth