That’s a good point, but that still leaves a tremendous amount of 100% grain-fed cattle and the feed lots used to fatten up the grass-fed cattle. Also the possibility that much of that land could be used for crop-growing. One of the reasons natives did not grow crops in the Great Plains, but hunted buffalo was because they did not have the steel plow to dig up that tough earth. They did, however, grow crops with digging sticks in the Prairie area (e.g., Minnesota and Iowa, a transitional area between the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains). See map:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...g/220px-Nordamerikanische_Kulturareale_en.png
There is also another issue re the Amazon rainforest; they are clearing it for beef raising. The problem there is that the nutrients are mainly in the plants, not in the soil (which is nutrient-poor). The proper agricultural practice to maintain undegraded soil there is swidden or shifting horticulture, which as been practiced there for centuries by the tribals. They clear some brush, plant some crops, then chop down the big trees to let the light in; after one crop, they move on to another area, and let that old crop area go back to jungle – a practice used by tribals in rainforests around the world. The European style of planting crops year after year in the same place depletes such poor soil, turning it into moonscape, and the forest does not come back, but the farmers move on to other areas and keep destroying them too.
I’m not sure, but I think McDonalds got a lot of its beef from such rainforest farms, but I think with public pressure they stopped.
I think a sensible approach would be to reduce beef consumption, and have the cattle eat the cornstocks, agri waste, and wild grasses between farms. It seems to me beef production could be reduced to about half, and that would benefit our health and mitigate many other problems. For example, one could order the regular burger at McDonalds (made famous by the “where’s the beef” ad) instead of the quarter pounder – then also order the salad and other healthy things to fill up the stomach’s remaining space.
Also note that meat eating has only slightly increased in the West over the past 20 years, but extremely increased in China (which nevertheless only consumes less than half of what Westerners consume per capita).
There is also the issue of rice involving a lot of methane emissions, but many peoples of the world are so used to rice, that it would be very difficult for them to change. That’s one thing we have not given up (my husband is from S. India), but we have reduced by about 1/3 to 1/2 by switching from white to brown rice some 20 years ago…which involves less consumption since it is more nutritious – we just feel more full with less rice.
The saints have things to say about the tongue, and I’m no saint…yet
