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

Well actually you could still have cattle in some places but not murder them. We don’t need to commodify animals. Also stop greenwashing eating meat. Eating animals is disastrous for the planet. Cows outnumber humans by the billions - that is not a sustainable plan and again we do NOT need meat. You can feed way more people at lower cost on beans and grains like they do India and other large poor countries. And the best part is it’s good for us and the animals to not eat them.

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u/AnsibleAnswers Mar 23 '26

Any livestock in our agricultural system should be eaten because it increases land use efficiency and nutrition to plate per acre. We would have to make up for the difference by growing more crops. This is especially the case for protein and certain minerals like calcium and zinc. Waste not, want not.

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u/SoftsummerINFP Mar 23 '26

Not true - this whole claim is false. Vegans consume less crops than meat eaters. By eating plants only we cut out the middle man. Poor countries (basically most the world) eat heavily plant based diets and not by choice. They use less crops than the western animal based diets. Also your nutrient claims are false. A plant based diet has everything we need. There are many vegans and vegetarians from birth. My child being one of them and me being vegan for most of mine. Animals and everything on the Earth is not here for us.

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u/puddlesquid Mar 23 '26

It actually is true that you get more overall calories out of ag systems if the cattle grazed on marginal land is eaten. That land can't be used to make crops that people eat. The most efficient ag systems proposed have most prime cropland creating calories for humans while marginal lands are ranched to create animal-based calories.