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...The real culprit is actually from suburbanites that have far more acreage in lawns then there is in farm land. More fertilizer is spread on lawns then on farmland as well and typically twice as much fertilizer is spread on a lawn then what it can handle. Thanks to CNMP's farmers have a very scientific approach to how much nutrients their farms can handle andwe do not over-fertilize. Why would we...it takes away from the bottom line to do so. At the same time, improper septic systems from homeowners ended up causing the majority of pollution in our lakes.
The truth is, livestock is a VERY effecient use of land and plant material, in particular because they can convert unarable land into very precious meat. Until we as humans can be genetitically modified to convert cellulose plant material into something we can digest, we are far better off letting our ruminant friends do so and eat them. The fact that they taste good is just a plus!!
If we truly want to protect the environment we as a society need to start helping the farmer instead of blaming them on twisted facts.
Broken Tap makes some good points. Ditto - where I used to live, everyone was raising heck abt what farmers were doing to 'destroy the river'. They were pushing to let the developers take over the family farms and build more nice clean houses with nice clean streets. THEN the EPA got the test results of the river water. The septic system runoff, as well as the oil from pavements and the pollution from the 'drainage ponds' that were dug and sold out as 'lakefront property' - it was all human-produced waste. Of course by then it was too late to knock down all of those houses and plow up all of those roads; now they are simply trying to deal with those carefully manicured and overfertilized lawns, the septic overflows, the oily runoff from the streets, and the fact that so much arable land had been paved over, not allowing the rainwater to seep naturally into the soil, but to race down streets and through culverts, overflowing into the river and pushing the filth ahead of it.
Where I live now, in the 1800's, no one lived. No one would run their animals here, no one would homestead, because the area was so very hilly and the 'weeds' that grew here 'would kill grazing animals because there was so little of it'. Then a large herd of cattle stampeded into "the Sandhills". Everyone knew they had to be dead. Lo and behold, come spring, they found the herd - bigger and fatter than ever before! That is why we now have HUGE cattle ranches. The water here is the purest anywhere. Of course, east of us, where they grow corn (largely lately for ethanol) and other vegetables, they have had so much problem with nitrates in the water that they have had to severely restrict farmers from planting and fertilizing. Here the grasses grow naturally, voluminously, freely, without seeding or fertilizer. It is something to see! And this is where most of your beef comes from! There are literally hundreds of thousands of cattle here, as far as the eye can see - and only 6000 people in the whole county. This past winter we had not one but two deer hanging; they were HUGE - both dressed out at over 120 pounds; one was an eight point and one a seven point. Even the wildlife here grow wonderfully huge off of the open grazing. I have my eye right now on two turkeys that look to dress out at abt 35 lbs apiece. It is spring turkey season here - and their population has risen 62% in the past year.
As far as I'm concerned, you can twist any data you want to 'prove' anything you choose. Facts don't change - but their interpretations do. Some greenies would have us all dressing in and eating leaves, freezing and starving to death, than to use what is given properly and efficiently. Meat - as long as it isn't stuffed into barns or quonset huts, shoulder to shoulder with the feet and legs rotting off, jacked up with all sorts of artificial garbage and never allowed to develop normal muscle and fat - is healthy and part of a balanced diet. When a friend back east had bad Cholesterol levels of over 500, his doctor told him - "eat wild". My friend stopped buying store bought and hunted, fished, and raised his own. His Cholesterol dropped 200 points - because he was eating wild but ALSO because he was getting more exercise, not just hunting but caring for his own animals!
Don't blame the animals or the people who raise them - blame the folks who want everything provided for them, better, faster, and prettier, and who then scream because their environment is "ruined".
We aren't going to stop eating meat or stop consuming dairy products in this country. We can reform our farming method so that we don't treat precious resource like the Chesapeake Bay like a sewer.
We aren't going to stop eating meat or stop consuming dairy products in this country. We can reform our farming method so that we don't treat precious resource like the Chesapeake Bay like a sewer.
Fair enough. I don't think anyone expects everyone to stop eating meat but people should have the courage to take an honest look at the impacts of what we are doing.
Factory farms in the USA are a very inefficient use of land and the waste they create is more than significant (don't get me started on pig farms). Funny thing is, the big farms, especially the meat and dairy producers, seem to get most of the federal ag subsidy money. Not much of that going to veggie producers.
@brokentap,
Check out what the Oak Ridge National laboratory has to say about corn:
I'm all for supporting farmers who are providing food while leaving us an ecosytem we can still live with. Federal Ag subsidy money should go to these farmers, not the big polluting factory farms.
I have to question the numbers myself because the report cited does not factor in a lot of important information that takes up the whole picture. One must keep in mind that an animal excretes 85% of what they eat back out as manure, and that is organic matter and good for the environment. In fact grazing livestock is a very efficient system. They eat in one spot, and depoisit 85% of what they eat back out. It is the ultimate cycling of nutrients for the soil.
My major concern is about the water usage. But regardless, even the National Corn Growers Assocation says the following:
"Collectively, beef, poultry, pork and dairy producers represent corn growers’ number-one customer, consuming 4.4 billion bushels annually. Corn used directly as feed represents nearly 60% of consumption, however, industrial co-products used as feed represents another 20% of corn usage."
The truth is, livestock is a VERY effecient use of land and plant material, in particular because they can convert unarable land into very precious meat.
But is it a good use of freshwater, especially when certain areas of the country are short on water? According to this USDA survey, California uses the most freshwater for livestock, compared to other states, but many places in CA are having to ration water. Water Use: Livestock water use
In fact I was told by a farmer (tree crop) that they will start charging higher rates to farm users due to this low supply. Here is a story related to the water issue. Of course a lot could be solved by just moving these types of operations to locations where the proper resources were available. Water Shortage, Higher Prices Doom Escondido Farmers | NBC San Diego
You make a very valid point on the water issue, and that is why I am a huge fan of the local/regional food movement. For instance where I live (Maine) we get 100 plus inches of water per year so we do not irrigate at all here. But I have been watching AgDay and know all to well the plight of taking fertile land in California and being forced to irrigate.
As SCGranny said, it depends upon the region where you are raising livestock. I don't think the answer to the worlds problems lies with shunning livestock as a food source, but rather choosing our diets based on what is available locally. That won't happen anytime soon as people like their orange juice and I don't see a lot of Mainer's planting organge groves here.
But livestock can also be the alternative answer to issues. For instance my own farm has not had livestock for 30 years or so. I choose to get back into livestock because I had planted unused arable land into trees. Those trees were decimated by a bark beetle infestation so I was left with some unused land. Paying for bulldozing on 20 acres of land was prohibitive, so I figured by harvesting the trees, and letting livestock graze around the stumps would be a good way to convert unproductive land into profitable land without a lot of input. In the meantime the stumps will rot down and in a few years I can plow the land up with conventional tractors...something I have.
In fact livestock can really be put to good use making arable land if one is patient enough and chooses the species when and where it is appropriate. For instance once the trees are harvested, the land can be fenced and goats placed in the area and allowed to browse the brush down. Later the area can be fenced in and pigs can be allowed to help root the stumps out. For the bigger stumps a bit of salt placed on the stump will get them to root the stump out. Once the stumps are gone the wees will come up and sheep love weeds. A bit of grazing by them and the weeds are browsed out and the grass comes up which will allow cows to be raised in the now cleared area. Now granted you are still left with rocks and dips, but the area has been naturally fertilized and a lot more options exists, including raising crops if the rocks are small enough to be removed by farm tractors.
"Excrement produced by chickens, pigs, and other farm animals: 16.6 billion tons per year - more than a million pounds per second (that's 60 times as much as is produced by the world's human population - farmed animals produce more waste in one day than the U.S. human population produces in 3½ years)."
"Water used for farmed animals and irrigating feed crops: 240 trillion gallons per year- 7.5 million gallons per second (that's enough for every human to take 8 showers a day, or as much as is used by Europe, Africa, and South America combined)."
"Emissions of greenhouse gases from raising animals for food: The equivalent of 7.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the UN report. Concludes the UN: "The livestock sector is... responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions." That's about 40 percent more than all the cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships in the world combined (transport is 13%)."
"It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie of animal protein as it does to make one calorie of plant protein."
Manure produced by said animals is THE BEST natural, organic fertilizer on the planet.
It is NOT the livestock at problem here. It is the way that they are raised. One or two "farm" critters on land big enough to sustain them, NOT all grouped together in a mudhole, feedlot, etc,.. is the key here. They are able to eat and forage on an acre or so, "fertilizing" as they go with "ready made" critter food, aka: grass, browse,... popping up behind them after a rain. When you have literally hundreds of animals kept confined in feedlots and having to truck in chemically or genetically produced feedstuff to feed these animals, what do you expect? The feeds are so called made better, by the modification, so that the livestock can get maximum utilization of said feeds. Also when livestock is all housed together like this, there is better incidence of sicknesses, etc... So now comes into play the wonderful world of excess medications...
This is the price we pay for the convenience of eating... Has anyone woke up yet!
It is NOT the livestock at problem here. It is the way that they are raised. One or two "farm" critters on land big enough to sustain them, NOT all grouped together in a mudhole, feedlot, etc,.. is the key here. They are able to eat and forage on an acre or so, "fertilizing" as they go with "ready made" critter food, aka: grass, browse,... popping up behind them after a rain. When you have literally hundreds of animals kept confined in feedlots and having to truck in chemically or genetically produced feedstuff to feed these animals, what do you expect? The feeds are so called made better, by the modification, so that the livestock can get maximum utilization of said feeds. Also when livestock is all housed together like this, there is better incidence of sicknesses, etc... So now comes into play the wonderful world of excess medications...
This is the price we pay for the convenience of eating... Has anyone woke up yet!
So you'd like to see American agricultural practices become more like those in Africa?
Water used to irrigate crops is not wasted. It's no different than water going to natural vegetation. It doesn't impact negatively the rain cycle. The biggest problems are really from cities, particularly those built where they shouldn't be (for instance, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, etc.). They use too much water for those areas' environments to handle. On top of that, water used for cities inevitably ends up polluted with drugs and other toxins through drugs people use and the chemicals used to treat water.
And let's not forget a susbstantial portion of our livestock (such as cattle) is raised where crops couldn't be supported.
And of course if you eat wild meat this whole thing becomes a moot point, because not eating such meat does nothing to help the environment.
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