4 ms·

There's literally not enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. As for the plantations: if we all cut out livestock from our diets, there'

There's literally not enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. As for the plantations: if we all cut out livestock from our diets, there'd be 9x less of them. And what does "ideal" mean?

glastra 8y ago
From your first sentence, I understand that feeding everyone in the planet is a priority. You also assert that, if we move to a plant-based diet, we would need 9x less plantations^. Do you believe those plantations will be abandoned? Or, rather, that they will be used to feed humans and thus lead to an overabundance of food and a 9x population growth? I believe that "ideal" is nowhere near a diet requiring supplementation and leading to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. ^: I see this "fact" touted around quite a lot. Could I get a source? Here you can actually see a figure of 67% of global crop yield by weight used to feed humans: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/0340...
- abainbridge 8y ago
  9x less plantations: 0.58 cows per hectare - http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 274 kg meat on a cow - https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html 10470 kJ of food energy per kilo of beef - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef 1000 days to rear a cow - https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml Therefore 0.58 * 274 * 10470 / 1000 = 607 kJ of cow, per day, per hectare. In comparison, wheat yields 3120 kg per hectare per year - https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-production/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-prod... 1368 kJ per kg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat Therefore 3120 * 1368 / 356 = 11989 kJ of wheat, per day, per hectare. So, by my calculations, you need 19.75x more land to grow a kJ of beef than a kJ of wheat.
  - deleted 8y ago
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cimmanom 8y ago
There’s enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. Just not in large quantities or very often. That said, free range solves some of the problems with factory farming but it is not the solution to climate change caused by meat production and consumption. Either way, even if for health reasons you’re not going to become entirely vegetarian, it is possible for most to reduce their meat consumption. A quarter to half a pound of meat daily (or worse, at every meal) is a weird American expectation that’s totally unnecessary.

glastra 8y ago

From your first sentence, I understand that feeding everyone in the planet is a priority. You also assert that, if we move to a plant-based diet, we would need 9x less plantations^. Do you believe those plantations will be abandoned? Or, rather, that they will be used to feed humans and thus lead to an overabundance of food and a 9x population growth? I believe that "ideal" is nowhere near a diet requiring supplementation and leading to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. ^: I see this "fact" touted around quite a lot. Could I get a source? Here you can actually see a figure of 67% of global crop yield by weight used to feed humans: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/0340...

abainbridge 8y ago
9x less plantations: 0.58 cows per hectare - http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 274 kg meat on a cow - https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html 10470 kJ of food energy per kilo of beef - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef 1000 days to rear a cow - https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml Therefore 0.58 * 274 * 10470 / 1000 = 607 kJ of cow, per day, per hectare. In comparison, wheat yields 3120 kg per hectare per year - https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-production/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-prod... 1368 kJ per kg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat Therefore 3120 * 1368 / 356 = 11989 kJ of wheat, per day, per hectare. So, by my calculations, you need 19.75x more land to grow a kJ of beef than a kJ of wheat.
- deleted 8y ago
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cimmanom 8y ago

There’s enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. Just not in large quantities or very often. That said, free range solves some of the problems with factory farming but it is not the solution to climate change caused by meat production and consumption. Either way, even if for health reasons you’re not going to become entirely vegetarian, it is possible for most to reduce their meat consumption. A quarter to half a pound of meat daily (or worse, at every meal) is a weird American expectation that’s totally unnecessary.