Veganism is a popular trend these days, especially in the West. Schools across the US declare Meat-Free Mondays, food chains offer vegan menus to cater to specific tastes, and protests against meat production take all sorts of forms. In some cases, naked women package themselves in plastic and stand in front of supermarkets to shame meat-eaters into doing what they perceive as a moral and an environment-friendly choice. Indeed, the environmental impact of animal farms has been generously explored by opinion-makers, politicians, and scientists alike. The solution, according to vegan activists, would be either in significantly limiting meat production or completely abolishing it, instead replacing animal products with grains, tofu, and other natural foodstuffs. But is that really the case? Are animal farms a detestable and inefficient bygone of ages past, or a necessary and integral part of modern agriculture?
Humanity has been utilizing meat as part of their diet since the appearance of Homo sapiens as a species. The first tribes and populations of people were hunters-gatherers. Meat played an important part in their diet, providing them with protein-rich and calorie-intensive meals – something that plant-based products found in the while could not, at the time. Later, when humanity moved from a hunter-gatherer society to farming communities, meat consumption remained integral. While access to plant-based foods grew, animals could stay fresh by being kept alive, to be slaughtered when necessary. This was an extremely useful feature, especially considering that fridges and ice were not accessible to populations for the majority of the year. In addition, many animals offered additional nutritious goods, such as milk and eggs, or materials to be used in other areas, such as fur. Even cow-pies could be dried up and used as fuel during cold winter seasons, making up for firewood shortages. Meat farming has been an integral part of society and economy then, and continues to be that in the 21st century, providing calorie and protein-rich nutrients, helping recycling and up-cycling, and contributing to food security everywhere around the world.
Meat-farming has been traditionally criticized and represented as a wasteful industry. Clare, Maani and Milner (2022) claims that animal farming is responsible for 14.5% of all methane gas emissions. It also states that plant food is less wasteful, requires less water to grow and does not require grain to be fed to animals (same grain that could be fed to humans). Some of the other arguments include statements that ¾ of all land currently used in food production are given to animal farms, and that those lands could be utilized to grow crops. Overall, Clare, Maani and Milner (2022) conclude that the fact meat farming is strong is because of the extensive lobbying the meat industry does to keep itself in a position of being indispensable to the economy, while consuming excessive food and water, that could have been used to solve the issues of hunger.
These claims are backed by scientific evidence, but without going deeper into the science of agriculture, they do not explain the matter accurately or truthfully. The claim of animal farming constituting 14.5% of all methane gas emissions seems like a lot. Methane comes from excretions made by all livestock, which is generated by digesting and fermenting grass and other food they consume (Munidasa et al., 2021). Most of that food is plant-based, meaning that CO2 (which methane decomposes into) is taken from the atmosphere by plants, which they use to grow (Munidasa et al., 2021). As such, the methane generated by animals is green methane, which takes part in the natural circle of release and reabsorbing.
Same could be said for water consumption – around 85-95% of all water consumed by animals is green water received from consuming grass and vegetation that relies on rains to grow (Schyns, Hoekstra, Booij, Hogeboom & Mekonnen, 2019). So, the water spent on growing these plants would have been wasted anyway by rainfall. Non-green water consumption per meat pound is similar to rice, thus refuting the claim of poor sustainability (Schyns et al., 2019). The claim of animals eating all the food that humans could have otherwise consumed is equally misinformed – 84%-86% of all animal feed is non-human-digestible (Singh, 2021). It includes stalks, peels, leaves, grass, rotten vegetables, and other agricultural refuse not fit for human consumption (Singh, 2021). By eating those, animals help in recycling and up-cycling these elements, which would have been left to rot, into delicious and highly-efficient sources of calories and protein.
Finally, animal farming helps make use of the land that is not fit for agriculture. That is the reason why ¾ of all land is occupied by ruminant livestock instead of crop farms (Spiegal et al., 2020). The land there is either too rocky, too steep-inclined, is not of good quality, or is too far away from natural sources of water to be viable for agriculture (Spiegal et al., 2020). Animal farming helps make use of that land, since grazing animals do not require as much care as crops do.
To conclude, animal farming is not a bygone of old age, clinging to life through lobbying and brainwashing people with commercials. It is an important part of supplying humanity with food and nutrients, recycling agricultural waste, and making use of the land that would otherwise be inoperable. Until humanity discovers a way to feed its increasingly numerous population through other means, be that Star Trek’s replicating technology, super-nutrients, or something else, both plant farms and animal farms will continue to exist and perform their function. The efforts should be aimed not at canceling or curbing their numbers but rather improving their efficiency in second and third-world countries, who are responsible for the majority of emissions and inefficient use of resources anyway.
References
Clare, K., Maani, N., & Milner, J. (2022). Meat, money and messaging: how the environmental and health harms of red and processed meat consumption are framed by the meat industry. Food Policy, 109, 102234.
Munidasa, S., Eckard, R., Sun, X., Cullen, B., McGill, D., Chen, D., & Cheng, L. (2021). Challenges and opportunities for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions through dairy cattle research in developing countries. Journal of Dairy Research, 88(1), 3-7.
Schyns, J. F., Hoekstra, A. Y., Booij, M. J., Hogeboom, R. J., & Mekonnen, M. M. (2019). Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(11), 4893-4898.
Singh, M. (2021). Organic farming for sustainable agriculture. Indian Journal of Organic Farming, 1(1), 1-8.
Spiegal, S., Kleinman, P. J., Endale, D. M., Bryant, R. B., Dell, C., Goslee, S.,… & Yang, Q. (2020). Manuresheds: Advancing nutrient recycling in US agriculture. Agricultural Systems, 182, 102813.