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Drought inducing? Are you forgetting that feeding cows is much more inneficient than growing crops? They drink lots of water and eat lots of corn/soy, and that

Drought inducing? Are you forgetting that feeding cows is much more inneficient than growing crops? They drink lots of water and eat lots of corn/soy, and that corn and soy requires lots of water to grow. AND you have to feed the calf a milk substitute because we're stealing it's meal. If you must have milk, drink dairy substitutes if you care about drought.

JoeAltmaier 9y ago
Depends on whether you already have pasture for cows. They ate grass in the middle ages, which people couldn't eat. Even today, they eat grass for the bulk of their lives. They are 'finished' with corn/soy to add marbling.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  In lots of feedlots they are gaining several hundred pounds. It's more than marbling.
- devmunchies 9y ago
  If you don't have pastures for cows or for the corn/soy then you make it right? Also terrible for the environment. It's a massive system beyond simply "eating the grass which people couldn't eat". People consume many times more dairy and eat many times more beef than in history. There's not enough land for all of the cows to free graze. It was estimated we would need something like 7 Earths to feed the world on the Western diet.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    Per capita consumption was likely quite a bit higher in the early US: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/how-americans-used-to-eat/371895/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/how-ameri... Of course the total consumption has gone up because of the massive increase in population.
    - devmunchies 9y ago
      But we hardly ate cheese in the early US. There were only a handful dairies. Now we are the #1 cheese producing country.
  - JoeAltmaier 9y ago
    Feedlots feed out with hay/grain, molasses and silage. The grain was (nominally) edible by humans; the rest is not. Over 100 days they eat ~1500kg per head total and gain around 140kg (meat). So when counting the grain used against the cost of meat, include the dry material as well for a fair comparison.
- aklemm 9y ago
  Wait a minute, does this mean my diet containing a lot corn and some soy has marbled me? Hmm, that can't be good.
LunaSea 9y ago
> It takes 1.1 gallons (5 litres) of water to grow one almond, and thanks to the big profits they bring in, almond orchards continue to be planted (this isn’t to say cow’s milk, which takes about 100 litres of water to produce 100ml of milk, is more environmentally friendly – more that its production is not concentrated in one area of the globe). cf: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/...

JoeAltmaier 9y ago

Depends on whether you already have pasture for cows. They ate grass in the middle ages, which people couldn't eat. Even today, they eat grass for the bulk of their lives. They are 'finished' with corn/soy to add marbling.

maxerickson 9y ago
In lots of feedlots they are gaining several hundred pounds. It's more than marbling.
devmunchies 9y ago
If you don't have pastures for cows or for the corn/soy then you make it right? Also terrible for the environment. It's a massive system beyond simply "eating the grass which people couldn't eat". People consume many times more dairy and eat many times more beef than in history. There's not enough land for all of the cows to free graze. It was estimated we would need something like 7 Earths to feed the world on the Western diet.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Per capita consumption was likely quite a bit higher in the early US: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/how-americans-used-to-eat/371895/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/how-ameri... Of course the total consumption has gone up because of the massive increase in population.
  - devmunchies 9y ago
    But we hardly ate cheese in the early US. There were only a handful dairies. Now we are the #1 cheese producing country.
- JoeAltmaier 9y ago
  Feedlots feed out with hay/grain, molasses and silage. The grain was (nominally) edible by humans; the rest is not. Over 100 days they eat ~1500kg per head total and gain around 140kg (meat). So when counting the grain used against the cost of meat, include the dry material as well for a fair comparison.
aklemm 9y ago
Wait a minute, does this mean my diet containing a lot corn and some soy has marbled me? Hmm, that can't be good.

LunaSea 9y ago

> It takes 1.1 gallons (5 litres) of water to grow one almond, and thanks to the big profits they bring in, almond orchards continue to be planted (this isn’t to say cow’s milk, which takes about 100 litres of water to produce 100ml of milk, is more environmentally friendly – more that its production is not concentrated in one area of the globe). cf: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/...