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Story is much more complicated than that. It takes far more fertilizer and irrigation to produce food for mass-produced meat. Well-maintained pasture has diver
by cowsandmilk 8y ago
Story is much more complicated than that.
It takes far more fertilizer and irrigation to produce food for mass-produced meat. Well-maintained pasture has diverse plants year round soaking up a small amount of CO2 versus land for corn that is plowed under. And land for ethical meat often has trees to shade the animals. Mass-produced meat requires highly intensive cleaning of stalls. And for things like beef, it is still unclear whether one diet or another produces more methane, which is a huge portion of the climate impact.
Then there are things like what is done with the manure. In a well-managed factory farm, it is digested. But there are tons of stories about polluted rivers near factory farms that make it clear that often isn't the case. Those polluted rivers result in algal blooms, which is a whole other matter.
Basically, a statement like "more resources to ethically produce meat" confuses the price to a farmer of producing meat with a calculation that incorporates all the externalities, which is a whole lot less clear.