The article's callout of alfalfa is an exception to the rule. Beef cattle eat a lot of human-inedible silage (byproducts of raising corn and soybeans) and for

The article's callout of alfalfa is an exception to the rule. Beef cattle eat a lot of human-inedible silage (byproducts of raising corn and soybeans) and for economic reasons the land they graze is typically non-arable land. Beef is a natural way for humans to benefit from the inedible byproducts of corn and soybean operations. Re: water, typical cattle operations supply natural rainfall (gathered in ponds) and not irrigated, meaning they return the moisture they consume to the soil along with some nitrates which fertilize the plants they graze -- they do not somehow retain 106 gallons of water per pound of meat. If you don't live in a desert, cattle are a beneficial part of the ecosystem as they extract human-edible calories from non-arable land. During drought, irrigation and supplements like alfalfa become necessary to keep a herd alive, but the problem isn't the cattle -- it's the drought.