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Not to mention the benefits for us: all the space dedicated to pasture could be dedicated to wildlife or outdoor recreation, and all the high-density facilities
by dkarl 3y ago
Not to mention the benefits for us: all the space dedicated to pasture could be dedicated to wildlife or outdoor recreation, and all the high-density facilities fouling air and waterways could be closed. If it works for fish, we could stop scouring the ocean like an Old Testament-style god angry with our creation.
Even the food snobs would be happy, since responsible wildlife management practices would yield a certain amount of expensive, hard-to-get wild meat that they could build a culinary mystique around.
- jononomo 3y agoSpace that is currently dedicated to pasture is already currently dedicated to wildlife. In fact, grazing cattle on land serves to rejuvenate the land, since the cattle's hoove's serve as little plows, and the cows walk around and poop and pee, which fertilizes the land and allows for insects and bugs to thrive, which helps the bird population, and the little rodents.
- harvey9 3y agoIn some cases that land was recently deforested. It was previously dedicated to wildlife but now it's dedicated to agriculture which happens to benefit some different wildlife.
- jojobas 3y agoForests are full of trees and trees tend to convert sunlight into wood, something that very little wildlife can eat. There's typically more food available to wildlife on pastures even when farmers try to fend off wildlife. For example, deforestation in Australia combined with a general reluctance of Australians to hunt brought about a kangaroo population explosion that requires government-mandated culls.
- callalex 3y ago> wood, something that very little wildlife can eat Not all wildlife can be picked up and pet by a human. That doesn’t mean it’s not a living being participating with a vital role in the ecosystem. There was a time before life could eat wood, and that time period is why the energy source is named “fossil fuel” and “dino juice”, that time period was long ago.
- jojobas 3y agoWood is mostly consumed by fungus. If that's wildlife in your book, fine.
- callalex 3y agoIt is! I can tell that my interpretation is annoying to you though so I will leave you alone with a question. Who then eats the fungus? And who eats that?
- jojobas 3y agoSome fungus fruit bodies are eaten by insect larva, which feeds into birds. Most of the energy stored in the wood is just wasted bypassing any macroscopic wildlife. If forests were efficient in feeding mammals or birds (i.e. making meat) our farms would have been forests.
- jcpst 3y ago[flagged]
- dkarl 3y agoRanchers insist on extinction-level suppression of large predators, probably for sound economic reasons. Wolves can't live on land that is heavily fragmented by pasture, because they'll be harassed and killed.