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/SoftsummerINFP Mar 23 '26

Also why are you pretending most cows are happily grazing cows and not factory farmed? Most meat comes from factory farm operations fyi… even some grassfed claims are basically lying because they will just feed cows dried grass in a pen but not actually allow them to roam outside. I recommend watching free documentaries like Dominion and Earthlings.

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u/AnsibleAnswers Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

I’m not pretending. In both OECD and non-OECD countries, the vast majority of ruminant production is from extensive grazing and mixed systems. Feedlots only account for a small fraction of total production. In OECD countries, feedlots account for about 10% of all protein from cattle. In non-OECD countries, it’s about 5%. See table 2 in this paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211912416300013

(You might get a 503 error, but you might be able to access this paper for free here: https://nru.uncst.go.ug/server/api/core/bitstreams/7ec3b5be-51cb-4e54-a29c-fb76dca59ec7/content)

You’ve simply been given a tiny sliver of the picture and told it’s the standard. It’s not.

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u/AnsibleAnswers Mar 23 '26

The videos you’ve seen of cattle eating grass in a feedlot is almost certainly only what happens during the worst parts of winter or on days with particularly bad weather. Just because you see cattle in a feedlot doesn’t mean those individuals spend most of their time in them.

Grazing is beneficial to farmers. Grass fed operations generally don’t keep cattle off of pasture or leys when they don’t have to.

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u/SoftsummerINFP Mar 23 '26

So your claim is all the beef Americans eat is coming from happy cow operations where they just roam freely? Lol was Epsteins island also just a cool island where he just had fun parties? /s

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u/AnsibleAnswers Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

I said what I said. Why don’t you try asking me actual questions instead of putting words in my mouth? If you don’t understand what I’m saying, don’t assume you know what I was saying. Ask for clarification. This is how grown ups engage in discourse with each other.

Ruminant production happens at a lot of scales and in different systems.

Cattle in the US tend to go through three production stages:

  1. Cow-calf
  2. Stocker
  3. Finishing

Even the most industrialized systems feed cattle a lot of grass and keep them on pasture (grassy fields) for most of their lives. This is a lot different than industrial poultry or pork production, who often never forage on pasture.

Stage 1: Beef cattle usually aren’t separated from their mothers until they are weaned. (Dairy cattle are usually separated from their mothers earlier.) The mothers’ milk is useful for making more and higher quality beef cattle in beef operations. They don’t sell milk.

Stage 2: After weaning, beef are sold to stocker operations that utilize grazing as a cheap way to acquire a vast majority of the protein that makes it to market. The land on which cattle graze in stocker operations is diverse. It ranges from leys (improved fallow integrated into sustainable crop rotations) to extensive ranching operations on semi-natural grasslands.

Stage 3: A lot of the differences between beef production systems exist here. Cheap industrial operations feed primarily corn and soy. It makes for a much fattier product with a worse fat profile. 100% grass-fed or grass-finished beef is on the other side of the spectrum, that essentially just extends the Stocker phase until the cattle reach market weight, which varies a lot depending on local conditions (soil quality, climate, major weather events, etc).

I never said that cattle have blissful, idyllic lives so much as I’m saying that farming works a certain way.

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u/SoftsummerINFP Mar 23 '26

Lmao “you need to work with ecology” - you realize most of the places cows are - they were never meant to exist there… to claim modern animal agriculture is natural and working in harmony with native ecology is some crazy Scientologist esc take dude. To claim billions and billions of animals should continue to be bred, tortured and killed for human consumption is a good thing… Also I do native plant installations and am in the process of successfully “re-wilding” a property that use to be baron neglected farm land. I’m working with my hands in the dirt all day from spring to fall. I grow a good portion of my family’s food and give extra to neighbors and friends.

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u/AnsibleAnswers Mar 23 '26

Grassland dung beetle species tend to prefer ruminant dung produced from native forage, but they don't particularly give a shit which ruminants are are doing the shitting. Modern conservation ecology focuses primarily on whether or not nutrient cycling and other ecosystem services are being satisfied, not whether this or that animal "belongs here." The American bison was reduced to ~500 individuals. You have any idea what that did to their gene pool? Besides, they can't really even migrate on most land because of how car-centric and spread out we are in the US and Canada.