Even humanely farmed meat has far more ecological impact per calorie (in terms of fertilizer runoff, loss of arable land, aquifer depletion, fossil fuels, etc.) than a vegetarian diet. Unsurprising when you consider that every calorie of farmed meat requires about an order of magnitude more calories of agriculture to support it.
At least 1 of your negative impacts is false.
Have you seen this TED talk? It seems that grazing cattle can actually restore deserts into grasslands, when for decades it was believed only the opposite could happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
It’s possible to raise cattle in this way, but that doesn’t mean that if you buy beef, any of it will be raised in that way. If you buy cattle that’s grazing at all, you’re paying extra for it. It’s not possible to satisfy more than a fraction of current demand with ecologically friendly grazing. It’s not grazing I’m referring to which is resulting in desertification, but monoculture agriculture which is used to support the livestock.
Emphasis on the word can, I doubt that the majority of cattle are farmed in a more resource-efficient way than the plant-based alternatives. The video certainly doesn’t establish that.
Even humanely farmed meat has far more ecological impact per calorie (in terms of fertilizer runoff, loss of arable land, aquifer depletion, fossil fuels, etc.) than a vegetarian diet. Unsurprising when you consider that every calorie of farmed meat requires about an order of magnitude more calories of agriculture to support it.
At least 1 of your negative impacts is false. Have you seen this TED talk? It seems that grazing cattle can actually restore deserts into grasslands, when for decades it was believed only the opposite could happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
It’s possible to raise cattle in this way, but that doesn’t mean that if you buy beef, any of it will be raised in that way. If you buy cattle that’s grazing at all, you’re paying extra for it. It’s not possible to satisfy more than a fraction of current demand with ecologically friendly grazing. It’s not grazing I’m referring to which is resulting in desertification, but monoculture agriculture which is used to support the livestock.
Emphasis on the word can, I doubt that the majority of cattle are farmed in a more resource-efficient way than the plant-based alternatives. The video certainly doesn’t establish that.