They are also fed grains and soy in varying percentage depending on regions and countries.
There is also still the use of land, energy, fresh water and the methane emissions typical of cows.
This is another break down of the above-mentioned study: https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
You can see that indeed, the USA does better than other countries on not dedicating crops to animal feed, but it is still about 14%, while the world average is around 40%. Isnāt that a lot that could be earned back?
The majority of the land used for cattle grazing is not suitable for farmland. Itās either to hilly or rocky or just plain doesnāt have great soil. Not to mention the level of crops it would require to feed people and the amount of people who just cannot sustain on a all vegan diet. There is a reason we are omnivores and not herbivores.
This is also covered by the study and the article I shared above. It would require using more lands for crops that feed people, but thatās ridiculously small compared to the land that would be regained from stopping animal agriculture, which is 75%. Just removing cows would do the vast majority of that.
Crops for feed can be regained and if most pasture land is inappropriate for crops, some are, so we would gain from freeing those too. Furthermore, this land can be given back to biodiversity, which will also benefit us in the long term, if just protecting biodiversity for the sake of it is not a good argument for you.
Again, I am not vegan, I mostly advocate for reducing, not forbidding, consumption proportionally to ecological impact. If some people for medical reason require meat, Iām completely fine with it, this would likely be a small percentage of the current consumption.
Omnivore, not obligate carnivore except for a few exceptions maybe, so we could use a low meat diet or a fully plant based diet fine.
this land can be given back to biodiversity,
there is no reason to think this is going to happen. theyāll build a mall or a skyscraper.
poore-nemecek is based on misreading LCA studies. LCA as a measurement is not transferable between studies. poore-nemececk just went through and did averages. itās not good science. itās not even science.
This is also covered by the study and the article I shared above. It would require using more lands for crops that feed people, but thatās ridiculously small compared to the land that would be regained from stopping animal agriculture, which is 75%. Just removing cows would do the vast majority of that.
Again the majority of the land used for cattle is not suitable for crops. So unless you plan on putting houses on that land itās not going to be used for anything anyways.
Crops for feed can be regained and if most pasture land is inappropriate for crops, some are, so we would gain from freeing those too. Furthermore, this land can be given back to biodiversity, which will also benefit us in the long term, if just protecting biodiversity for the sake of it is not a good argument for you.
O it would be great to have more biodiversity, we need all the insects we can get, but cows arenāt killing off our insect populations, growing crops and spraying pesticides are. Which donāt even get me started on organicā¦they use organic pesticides which are way more devastating to the environment.
Again, I am not vegan, I mostly advocate for reducing, not forbidding, consumption proportionally to ecological impact. If some people for medical reason require meat, Iām completely fine with it, this would likely be a small percentage of the current consumption.
In honesty, we need vertical farms and lab grown meat. If that could be pulled off then weād be golden. Iām not against eating plants, but Iām not someone who likes that militant vegans come in and spew bullshit just because they want to feel morally superior to people who eat meat.
Omnivore, not obligate carnivore except for a few exceptions maybe, so we could use a low meat diet or a fully plant based diet fine.
The issue isnāt that we canāt, itās that the majority of people already eat like crap, which meat helps fill in the blanks. If we went to all plant based, people would still eat like crap and be missing vitamin D and protein.
Also a good chunk of us are already eating a low meat diet because that shit is expensive.
The majority of the land used for cattle grazing is not suitable for farmland.
But why should land be treated in that binary? How much biodiversity is being destroyed just to keep cattle or some other animals instead of keeping it in its natural state?
In itās natural state bison would have been grazing on it. That also doesnāt solve the gripe that vegans have which is that land could be used for crops, which really destroys the biodiversity of land. At least with cattle, you just let them eat anything that grows. Horses are usually terrible for biodiversity because people mow the land and want nice lush fields, were as cattle farmers donāt, they let the cows eat roughage which is actually healthier for them. They also rotate pastures a lot more than most horse people do.
