Free Range Cows Have Environmental Cost

[dwivian]

Cattle Production Report: "[U]sing a model system endorsed by sustainable agriculture advocates and the emissions factors stipulated by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we find that organic grass-fed beef production requires three times more land and results in 60 percent more greenhouse gas emissions (excluding N2O) compared to grain feeding with the aid of growth promoting hormones." (emphasis mine).

Wow.... so... best to keep them locked up and immobile? MY ECO BRAIN IS HURTING!

Comments

[martinhesselius.livejournal.com]

*Shrug*
Define best?
Are you alive?
Then you'll have an impact on the world.
And since we're all a part of it, that's OK.
Just figure out what you want to do, and what's acceptable.
(Guess who'd like to see some more partisan-free science in schools? ;) )

[dangerdyke.livejournal.com]

i would want to know how they determined the gas emmissions. as far as more land, did they look at impact on that land---same amount of cattle over three times more land sounds to me like the land itself is less impacted. also, did they take into account all the factors of grain feeding them all in one palce--harvesting the grain, trnasporting it to the cows, versus the cows wandring for their own food over that three times of extra land. and those growth promoting hormones....shudder....

ok course, as soeone else said, being alive = impact, but you can try to minimize and harmful impact. this study sounds a bit fishy to me though--who paid for it? it may not be the case, but it sounds like some profit-concerned industry foilks wanting to demonize other, less profitable but overall better ways so that they can continue to maxmize profit without hurting their image, which could lead to loss of profit.

[captain-drew.livejournal.com]

Actually, it helps the environment if you eat a lot of veal. And baby geese. And those little fluffy orange things... heck, what are they called.... orangutans? And harpsichords, and fruitbats and wallabees and bald eagles and condors and... are you writing all this down?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, yes, veal has much lower environmental impact than beef. So definitely, veal for everyone.

[lorenalis.livejournal.com]

When I moved out to Texas back in '92, I noticed the size of the pastures for cattle and how much larger they were there than back in TN. The couple I was staying with when I first moved out there told me that, due to dryness of the state it took more than an acre of land to support one cow. In TN, one acre of land could support as many as 15 cows. So, the question actually becomes: where were they conducting their study and from where did they get their baseline? It can all become subjective if you're comparing results from one area to the results of another.

I wouldn't say the studies findings are outright wrong, but definitely subject to more scrutiny.

[melonaise.livejournal.com]

Note that they say "grass-fed" not "free range." Grass-fed means the grass is harvested and then fed to the cows, so there's no reduction in the fuel/fuel exhaust needed for the transport of the grass to the cows. Grains have more calories than grass, so the cows don't need to eat as much grain as they would grass-- and the addition of growth hormones means they grow faster, so they can be slaughtered earlier thereby eating even less (and producing fewer gases as their life is shorter). And the "organic grass-fed" phrase could mean the grass itself is grown organically, so they may need to plant more of it as organic farmers often do. It's not clear whether "organic" is modifying the beef or the grass.

If the cows were free range, there could be fewer fuel/fuel exhaust needed since less grass or grain needs to be transported-- though that would be balanced out by the occasional need to round up the cows. Free range cows also give back to their environment with manure. The land they eat from is replenished and doesn't need to be laid fallow the same way crop land does. Free range land doesn't need to be (or very rarely needs to be) tilled or planted, saving fuel/fuel exhaust. The land is multi-use, benefiting multiple ranchers and often overflowing into park/hunting/logging/etc land. But free range doesn't work everywhere.