Have you traveled around? The foothills have a lot of very rocky slopes and terrain. Terrace farming is extremely expensive and labor intensive. Vineyards are the only crop grown on slopes at scale, and we already have too many grapes.
They drink water for example, a kg of cow meat requires 1000L of water. This is not a problem everywhere, but it can be.
They eat grass and there are many places where they have the space and the climate to walk around and eat the grass that is there, but many places they need additional food. Their biggest source of protein is usually soy. Most of that soy comes from south-america: first they burn down a forest to make space, then they plant genetically modified soy. This soy is modified to be resistant to pesticides. They spray the entire plot with these chemicals, so everything dies except the soy. This stuff travels beyond the borders of the farmers land, killing local wildlife and threatening the ecosystem.
Also not all cows are treated well. A cow only gives milk after birth, so each year a cow has to be insimenated and birth a baby cow. A cow can live for decades, but their body is working so hard many won’t live over 10 years.
Another problem is that cows are given hormones and antibiotics, residues of which end up in consumer meat.
I’m not writing this because I believe we should go to a 100% plant-based society, but the current system of mass-production is a lose-lose situation for everyone except for the people making a (small) profit.
the treatment of animals is pretty bad in a lot of modern industrial setups. that doesn’t mean that all milk products are bad, though. for example, things are very different if you look at italy, compared to the US.
cattle are hardly fed any soy at all, but the vast majority of the soy fed to livestock is the industrial waste from pressing soybeans for oil. that’s conserving resources.
I dont know how you’ve come to believe that, but it is not even remotely true. Cows eat parts that humans do not, but what they’re fed is not a product that’d otherwise be wasted. Deforestation to feed livestock including cows is a real thing and soy is a big part of that. Feel free to eat as much meat as you want, but the least you can do is not share false information.
When someone mentions soy, we often think about foods such as tofu, soy milk, tempeh, or edamame beans. This feeds into the argument that meat and dairy substitutes – such as switching from meat to high-protein tofu or from dairy to soy milk – is in fact worse for the environment. But, only a small percentage of global soy is used for these products. More than three-quarters (77%) of soy is used as feed for livestock.
you do see that cows hardly get any of the soy, right? and that the vast majority of what is fed to them is the waste product from pressing the soybean for oil?
Absolute misinformation. Look at California and tell me there is such a thing as unfarmable land.
If cattle can graze there, you can grow crops there.
In fact, cattle require an enormous amount of more resources (eg water) than crops do
sure, you can even grow wheat in the desert, assuming you use enough artificial watering systems.
in fact many countries even do this.
this is egypt for example.
Have you traveled around? The foothills have a lot of very rocky slopes and terrain. Terrace farming is extremely expensive and labor intensive. Vineyards are the only crop grown on slopes at scale, and we already have too many grapes.
Them using land is not the only thing they do.
They drink water for example, a kg of cow meat requires 1000L of water. This is not a problem everywhere, but it can be.
They eat grass and there are many places where they have the space and the climate to walk around and eat the grass that is there, but many places they need additional food. Their biggest source of protein is usually soy. Most of that soy comes from south-america: first they burn down a forest to make space, then they plant genetically modified soy. This soy is modified to be resistant to pesticides. They spray the entire plot with these chemicals, so everything dies except the soy. This stuff travels beyond the borders of the farmers land, killing local wildlife and threatening the ecosystem.
Also not all cows are treated well. A cow only gives milk after birth, so each year a cow has to be insimenated and birth a baby cow. A cow can live for decades, but their body is working so hard many won’t live over 10 years.
Another problem is that cows are given hormones and antibiotics, residues of which end up in consumer meat.
I’m not writing this because I believe we should go to a 100% plant-based society, but the current system of mass-production is a lose-lose situation for everyone except for the people making a (small) profit.
the treatment of animals is pretty bad in a lot of modern industrial setups. that doesn’t mean that all milk products are bad, though. for example, things are very different if you look at italy, compared to the US.
True and inside those countries there can be big differences as well.
cattle are hardly fed any soy at all, but the vast majority of the soy fed to livestock is the industrial waste from pressing soybeans for oil. that’s conserving resources.
I dont know how you’ve come to believe that, but it is not even remotely true. Cows eat parts that humans do not, but what they’re fed is not a product that’d otherwise be wasted. Deforestation to feed livestock including cows is a real thing and soy is a big part of that. Feel free to eat as much meat as you want, but the least you can do is not share false information.
https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation
you do see that cows hardly get any of the soy, right? and that the vast majority of what is fed to them is the waste product from pressing the soybean for oil?
Wow I had no idea. Thanks, I’m vegan now.
Make sure you tell everyone and tell them how they are supposed to live. Make sure to use a lot of fake science.
I already started posting it all over NextDoor. Next I’m going to protest the meat, wool, and egg vendors at farmers market tomorrow.
You should probably look at bigger groups than literally who, but you’ve got the right idea!
My sign said “Animals are slaves. Eat a slave product, become a slave”. The wool vendor was not pleased, knitting with a scowl.
Mountains.