I know that conditions in factory farms are gross and cruel to animals, but I don’t understand how it isn’t sustainable from an environmental perspective. Less cruel and more natural means for raising livestock take up much more land. With all the beef eaten in the United States, could most of it easily be raised on grass pastures, or would that require an unreasonably enormous portion of land be devoted to grazing? As for chickens, I know they’re generally considered carnivores but are fed grains in most farms, which is less healthy for them. They also aren’t given much space to move around inside giant pens.
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With the huge appetite for meat humanity has, and with a growing population, it seems like the means of raising livestock that are the most popular became that way because they were the most efficient. I’m not saying efficient is best for the animals or for the quality of the product, but it seems like it’s designed to use the least amount of land and produce the most output. Are these more efficient methods really worse for the environment than other means?
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Please feel free to point me to sources for more reading on the subject!
In: Planetary Science
On top of the issues with meat farming, there’s also the issue of WHERE the feed for said meat is farmed. A lot of factory farming happens on desert land, because consistent climate lowers the risk of inclement weather wiping out the crop, but that also means the water has to come from elsewhere. If this water comes from a nearby river, things can get pretty hairy – see Lake Mead’s ongoing water crises, or how the construction of the LA Aqueduct basically destroyed the ecosystem of the Owens Valley – but there’s also issues with pumping groundwater, which in a lot of cases, can take decades or even centuries to renew.
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