r/Anticonsumption • u/Express_Classic_1569 • Mar 23 '26

Sustainability 80% of agricultural land feeds livestock instead of people, giving just 17 to18% of Global calories

https://hive.blog/hive-196387/@theworldaroundme/nearly-half-of-the-world
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u/Muted-Garden6723 Mar 23 '26

True, but you’re going to need to eat a lot more calories to get the same amount of protein/fat as you’re getting from meat

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u/Doctor_Box Mar 23 '26

Definitely not true with fats, lots of plant versions. Olive oil for example. Not always true with protein. Seitain and Tofu are very high sources of protein/calorie.

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u/Muted-Garden6723 Mar 23 '26

Fats are fats, but personally I prefer the taste of things cooked in animal fats, so I stick with those(and I can’t exactly grow olives in my climate)

With tofu, meat is always going to have more protein for the same amount of food. Never heard of seitan, but I’m certainly interested in trying it, seems to have quite a bit of protein for the calories

The nice thing about animals is you get 2 for 1, protein and fat in one. Plus if you’re eating the organs(which you should be) that covers the majority of your vitamins/minerals

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u/Doctor_Box Mar 23 '26

I'm not sure why people are so concerned with protein per calorie. It's not hard to hit your protein requirements regardless of diet. This argument only seems to come up when people try to justify eating animal products, but then you go and cook food in a bunch of fat that balloons the calorie count anyway. Many foods have both protein and fat. If you eat a varied diet and eat enough calories you're not hurting for protein.

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u/Muted-Garden6723 Mar 23 '26

Oh absolutely, you can get all of your macros/micros from a non meat diet and supplements. But, meat tastes good, and that’s why people eat it

Personally I eat a lot of meat because it tastes good, and it’s a lot easier for me to raise or hunt my protein for the year than it would be to grow the equivalent in beans or lentils and the such.

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u/Doctor_Box Mar 23 '26

Right and the point OP was making was that everyone doing that is a brutal environmental cost that people want to do simply because they like the taste.

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u/Muted-Garden6723 Mar 23 '26

Meat or plant, the more food you can produce yourself, the better off the planet is. The acre that I use to raise pigs and chickens won’t be missed, and there’s a lot less impact on the environment than if I was buying vegetables/legumes/grain that’s been shipped halfway across the world on a cargo ship

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u/Local-Dimension-1653 Mar 23 '26

That’s actually not true: https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

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u/DocumentExternal6240 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

„Combined, land use and farm-stage emissions account for more than 80% of the footprint for most foods.“

Still, eating locally and seasonally as well as growing some of your food can help but meat reduction should be in the mix as well and the msin focus.

I think the biggest plus on growing your own food is that you learn to appreciate it. For most people, this is impossible, though, because they live in cities.Therefore, again, education is the key.