This is a really helpful overview, John. It’s striking that no one is talking about reducing the industrial animal operations. I have a question: do you think it would make a difference if the animals were raised in more animal-friendly conditions, like smaller operations, more free range, less crowding? Does that pattern result in less pollution? Obviously some government oversight shifts need to happen too. I bet you have lots of other ideas too about what needs to happen. I’d love to hear them!
What you're suggesting certainly could make a difference, but however we do it, we're not going to be able to sustainably consume anywhere near the quantities of meat and dairy that we're used to. I'm doing my part by going vegan!
Government oversight shifts are needed. We have the USDA, whose mission is to promote agriculture, not human health, deciding on the contents of MyPlate, the successor to the food pyramid, and what you can buy with food stamps. That would be a first fix. Not seeing how it would happen.
Really enjoyed this piece. We have stopped purchasing beef for these reasons, and others. I highly recommend folks read This Land by Chris Ketchum if they’d like a fairly shocking but deeply researched overview of cattle impacts to American public lands in the west, not to mention state politics. It impacted me the way Cadillac Desert did the first time I read it.
Nov 21, 2023·edited Nov 21, 2023Liked by John Lovie
Thank you for covering this. It feels like an intractable problem, and that's speaking as someone who still eats meat. "We're feeding the world" is a phrase I hear a LOT from cattle ranchers. It's a hard claim to refute without enough information on hand--the more work like this out there, the better. And even many doing more regenerative agriculture and focusing on soil health send their animals to feedlots as part of the process--not all, but it still happens.
It really is joined at the hip. Commons thinking is such a good framework for this because you have to look at the health of the whole ecosystem, starting with the water. What works? Rarely cattle. But cattle ranching is an identity, and if there's something people will fight hard against, losing, it's their identity. I always land in the same place with how hard it is to make change: in people's imaginations.
(Substack's edit function is useful, but I shouldn't use it to change things other than typos! Stuff gets missed.)
I wrote a bit about this a couple of months ago - cattle ranchers feeding the world is an extremely misleading statement. A UN based study in 2019 showed that 83% of the global calorific supply was plant-based not meat, and only 37% of the global protein supply is from meat and dairy products. Given the concentration of meat consumption is limited to a few pockets of the world and when you look at how much land is used for meat production (including for animal feed), it's completely disproportionate. Farms less than 2 hectares in size produce 30-34% of the food supply on 24% of agricultural land. Small farms grow more in a smaller space (a 2018 study).
Going back to the initial question of whether smaller operations would result in less water pollution, the answer is complex, but yes, regenerative ag helps. Experiments in biodiverse pasture which is more resilient (enabling outdoor feeding of livestock even in winter) also reduces leaching from water run off. Run off is reduced by not tilling the soil and tree planting near water courses all help.
The real issue though is meat consumption at levels which aren't really all that healthy anyway and how industrial ag and big food processing companies have normalised that degree of consumption.
Yes to all of this! It's such a hard problem purely because it's a social one: cattle ranchers (at least where I live, Montana) have enormous political power, and to combat the "we're feeding the world" self-identity is extremely difficult. The more true information there is out there for all of us to access, the better!
FYI
https://www.westernwatersheds.org/
This is a really helpful overview, John. It’s striking that no one is talking about reducing the industrial animal operations. I have a question: do you think it would make a difference if the animals were raised in more animal-friendly conditions, like smaller operations, more free range, less crowding? Does that pattern result in less pollution? Obviously some government oversight shifts need to happen too. I bet you have lots of other ideas too about what needs to happen. I’d love to hear them!
Thanks Priscilla, yes, sacred cows!
What you're suggesting certainly could make a difference, but however we do it, we're not going to be able to sustainably consume anywhere near the quantities of meat and dairy that we're used to. I'm doing my part by going vegan!
Government oversight shifts are needed. We have the USDA, whose mission is to promote agriculture, not human health, deciding on the contents of MyPlate, the successor to the food pyramid, and what you can buy with food stamps. That would be a first fix. Not seeing how it would happen.
And yes, I have much more to come on this issue!
Really enjoyed this piece. We have stopped purchasing beef for these reasons, and others. I highly recommend folks read This Land by Chris Ketchum if they’d like a fairly shocking but deeply researched overview of cattle impacts to American public lands in the west, not to mention state politics. It impacted me the way Cadillac Desert did the first time I read it.
Yes! I read that book.
Thanks for your kind words.
Thank you for covering this. It feels like an intractable problem, and that's speaking as someone who still eats meat. "We're feeding the world" is a phrase I hear a LOT from cattle ranchers. It's a hard claim to refute without enough information on hand--the more work like this out there, the better. And even many doing more regenerative agriculture and focusing on soil health send their animals to feedlots as part of the process--not all, but it still happens.
Thanks. There is so much to say on this topic. It's joined at the hip to land use and water issues.
Seeing your edit. Regenerative practices help, but planet wide we're looking at meat as treat, not a staple. And that's just climate change.
It really is joined at the hip. Commons thinking is such a good framework for this because you have to look at the health of the whole ecosystem, starting with the water. What works? Rarely cattle. But cattle ranching is an identity, and if there's something people will fight hard against, losing, it's their identity. I always land in the same place with how hard it is to make change: in people's imaginations.
(Substack's edit function is useful, but I shouldn't use it to change things other than typos! Stuff gets missed.)
No, I'm just too eager!
Yes, commons thinking is such a good framework, not least because of the outsize role animal ag has played in their loss!
No kidding! Can never get over the sheep farmers and enclosures of the commons. Talk about destructive.
I wrote a bit about this a couple of months ago - cattle ranchers feeding the world is an extremely misleading statement. A UN based study in 2019 showed that 83% of the global calorific supply was plant-based not meat, and only 37% of the global protein supply is from meat and dairy products. Given the concentration of meat consumption is limited to a few pockets of the world and when you look at how much land is used for meat production (including for animal feed), it's completely disproportionate. Farms less than 2 hectares in size produce 30-34% of the food supply on 24% of agricultural land. Small farms grow more in a smaller space (a 2018 study).
Going back to the initial question of whether smaller operations would result in less water pollution, the answer is complex, but yes, regenerative ag helps. Experiments in biodiverse pasture which is more resilient (enabling outdoor feeding of livestock even in winter) also reduces leaching from water run off. Run off is reduced by not tilling the soil and tree planting near water courses all help.
The real issue though is meat consumption at levels which aren't really all that healthy anyway and how industrial ag and big food processing companies have normalised that degree of consumption.
Yes to all of this! It's such a hard problem purely because it's a social one: cattle ranchers (at least where I live, Montana) have enormous political power, and to combat the "we're feeding the world" self-identity is extremely difficult. The more true information there is out there for all of us to access, the better!
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/09/big-meat-dairy-lobbyists-turn-out-record-numbers-cop28
This is telling.
And the pesticide and fertilizer companies, too ... :(
And the carbon capture and storage people
That really is.