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Out of curiosity, which animals are more efficient? Do you have a source on that? There are, as far as I know, regions where the soil is only capable of growin
by glastra 7y ago
Out of curiosity, which animals are more efficient? Do you have a source on that?
There are, as far as I know, regions where the soil is only capable of growing pasture, hard to plant trees in.
- the8472 7y agofor the first two questions refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio > There are, as far as I know, regions where the soil is only capable of growing pasture, hard to plant trees in. I assume that those areas would not be sufficient to cover current meat and dairy demands. If they were there wouldn't be any deforestation or soy fields for animal feed. And non-grazed grasslands is still going to release less methane than grazed lands.
- glastra 7y agoGreat link, thank you. Regarding deforestation and so on, I think we must also take into account that "industrialized" non-pastured husbandry (is that the correct term?) is probably cheaper and easier than the greener alternative. Sadly, it's usually a matter of profits and not a matter of environmental friendliness.
- chrisco255 7y agoMore than 90% of a beef cow's body weight comes from pasture land grass and hay. When's the last time the Midwestern plains area of the United States was forest? Before the beef industry, 50-100 million bison roamed the plains. It turns out that ruminants like bison and cows are essential components of a grassland ecosystem.
- markstos 7y agoBut killing them for food is not.
- chrisco255 7y agoYes it is. They are prey animals and they literally evolved to be prey. Incidentally we also killed off most of the major predators around the world so there are few wolves, saber tooth cats, etc to keep population numbers controlled.