3 ms·

How can something which is horribly inefficient for environment (water use, land use, greenhouse emissions from fertilizer) possibly be S tier?

VladVladikoff 1y ago
Biodiverse farms with animals and plants, rotating crop fields, are far more ecologically friendly than pure plant farms.
kriops 1y ago
What a weird question, if it was at all genuine. Not only is it not inefficient but, e.g., cows are absolutely unique and amazing for their ability to digest, e.g., grass into something that is highly nutritiously desirable for humans.
- progbits 1y ago
  https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets What you say is maybe true but irrelevant. We don't have to grow grass.
  - HDThoreaun 1y ago
    Crappy grass is the only thing that grows in the upper plains because there isnt any water.
  - kriops 1y ago
    Asserting ruminants are “irrelevant” tells me nobody should take you seriously on this topic. Replicating their function is the problem to solve if you ever want to make the case you think you are making.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
jaian 1y ago
Because that's not what we are talking about.
tomxor 1y ago
Meat especially grass fed beef, is not just protein, it's an incredibly dense source of nutritients. You have to eat far higher quantities and ranges of plant based alternatives to acquire the same nutritional value, and they are usually less bioavailable. So from the perspective of the person consuming it, it's very efficient source of nutrients, and also the most satiating food you can eat, so you won't feel the urge to overeat. Abstractly, using land for crops is around an order of magnitude more efficient when considering only calories per unit area, but when considering the total system i.e the humans consuming it, there's an argument to be had that more livestock could be more efficient when considering all the side effects of a huge population of malnourished humans overeating refined hyper-paletable carbs. For either side of this argument, the real issue is industrial agriculture producing both crops and livestock in unsustainable and nutritionally devoid ways, that are incredibly bad for the environment and humans consuming it.

VladVladikoff 1y ago

Biodiverse farms with animals and plants, rotating crop fields, are far more ecologically friendly than pure plant farms.

kriops 1y ago

What a weird question, if it was at all genuine. Not only is it not inefficient but, e.g., cows are absolutely unique and amazing for their ability to digest, e.g., grass into something that is highly nutritiously desirable for humans.

progbits 1y ago
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets What you say is maybe true but irrelevant. We don't have to grow grass.
- HDThoreaun 1y ago
  Crappy grass is the only thing that grows in the upper plains because there isnt any water.
- kriops 1y ago
  Asserting ruminants are “irrelevant” tells me nobody should take you seriously on this topic. Replicating their function is the problem to solve if you ever want to make the case you think you are making.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

jaian 1y ago

Because that's not what we are talking about.

tomxor 1y ago

Meat especially grass fed beef, is not just protein, it's an incredibly dense source of nutritients. You have to eat far higher quantities and ranges of plant based alternatives to acquire the same nutritional value, and they are usually less bioavailable. So from the perspective of the person consuming it, it's very efficient source of nutrients, and also the most satiating food you can eat, so you won't feel the urge to overeat. Abstractly, using land for crops is around an order of magnitude more efficient when considering only calories per unit area, but when considering the total system i.e the humans consuming it, there's an argument to be had that more livestock could be more efficient when considering all the side effects of a huge population of malnourished humans overeating refined hyper-paletable carbs. For either side of this argument, the real issue is industrial agriculture producing both crops and livestock in unsustainable and nutritionally devoid ways, that are incredibly bad for the environment and humans consuming it.