4 ms·
Why not just let the animals pasture and eat grass instead of feeding them grain? Factory farms are the big problem.
by volker48 12y ago
Why not just let the animals pasture and eat grass instead of feeding them grain? Factory farms are the big problem.
- mmanfrin 12y agoPasture-raised beef still uses an obscene amount of water compared to every other protein we eat, by a very large margin.
- fastball 12y agoPardon my possible ignorance, but shouldn't all water consumed in the process be recycled when the cows + humans urinate? Water doesn't just disappear.
- xanderstrike 12y agoTrue, but it doesn't immediately become potable. If you're in, say, California where water usage vastly outstrips rainfall, the amount of water you consume is very important. All the water beyond what you get naturally has to be run through expensive purification and transportation.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- eru 12y agoThat's why you shouldn't eat Californian cows. Import them.
- logn 12y agoIn the long term their waste will become potable water. But in the near term it pollutes water. Also the water source makes a big difference. Letting cows graze doesn't really impact anyone's water supply. Grains are less efficient.
- frozenport 12y ago>>Factory farms are the big problem. Is it wrong to say that factory farms are efficient and therefore less of a strain on resources?
- dwiel 12y agoBasically, "the cheaper the better." That's not how I evaluate food choices since it is so closely tied to health and so quality is important in addition to cost. There are plenty of other times other than food when "the cheaper the better" is not true.
- mycatbijou 12y agoThey're cost efficient, not "resource efficient".
- gfodor 12y agohow is there a difference? less cost = less capital = less resources.
- mycatbijou 12y agoWater is cheap.
- willyt 12y agoHuman capital. Fertile ground is better used for food crops rather than animal feed crops. Marginal land is most efficient for grazing livestock. But hill farmed livestock is labour intensive and skilled dirty uncomfortable work to boot. Labour is expensive.
- reitanqild 12y ago> skilled dirty uncomfortable work Grew up on a farm on marginal land. Actually liked it.
- tripzilch 12y ago
- Loughla 12y agoBecause there is no conceivable way to feed the world on pasture animals. There just aren't enough resources.
- Falling3 12y agoFactory farms are the big problem because they're the entire industry. There is absolutely no way to feed people at anywhere near the current consumption levels with pasture-raised animals.
- randomdata 12y agoI grew up around cattle and back then there was no question that grain-finished beef produced the best quality for the buyer. It is incredibly fascinating to me to see how the marketing of grass-fed meat has actually changed taste preferences enough that we even question why we use grain today.
- ska 12y agoI'd always heard that it was cost that drove grain finishing, nothing to do with taste. Is that a myth? After all, grain finishing is a bit of a strange thing to do with animals that can't digest it well naturally, on the face of it.