- Re: I haven't seen the video, but here are my arguments against going vegan Archived Message
Posted by mack
on November 15, 2019, 5:24 pm, in reply to "Re: I haven't seen the video, but here are my arguments against going vegan"
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do you know how much arable land is currently used for growing feed for livestock? One third. That chucks a bit of a stick in the spokes, right there. Why does it? You could raise animals on that land instead! It does because that one third (and that's globally) represents a subsidy to raising animals. So your argument that there's mice being turfed out also applies to that huge tranche of land being used to prop up meat production because it couldn't be sustained at the level it is without that subsidy. If you used that land for garzing more animals then you'd need to set aside yet more land to subsidize that. Then why is only one third of arable land used for feeding animals? Two thirds is a bigger number than one third and that doesn't account for the animals that humans eat but food animals don't. Only??! Because it's a subsidy. This chap disagrees Well he seems to have forgotten that it ain't just grazing, it's a third of your farm that needs to grow vegetables or hay or grain for fodder. It most certainly is, as it stands, a terribly inefficient way to produce food in energy terms, which is what I said, because the inputs in calories far outweigh the outputs. That's ineffiency in a nutshell. If everyone did what you're doing, that would get worse; that is as close to a definition of unsustainable as you can get. The same goes for pretty much all agribusiness as is. it doesn't sound like a fair yardstick. If someone manages something in a way that's "idiotic" then it's hardly surprising that their results are bad. It's fair alright because it's the norm. The Welsh example is a good one because Wales is synonymous with sheep farming, yet after hundreds of years of it the land is so degraded it can't even support enough production to satisfy local demand. Ever heard of New Zealand lamb? You could hardly get a longer distance to be importing your shortfall from, which kind of crushes the argument about importing out of season vegetables, because your local lamb production doesn't meet the needs regardless of season (and meat is also perishable of course, not just vegetables). Also, you need to remember, that grass is another one of those things that tends not to grow in the winter, hence the one third of arable land subsidy to meat production. Also, there are ways of producing food (plant based) that don't involve the mass slaughter of insect and other wildlife. Nor the mass slaughter and incarceration in vile conditions of pigs/sheep/cattle/chickens, the scale of which is horrific - and mice being turfed out of fields doesn't bare comparison, it's almost a joke. No till, organic, holistic management of mixed systems, that's the way to go. |