[dbatten]

The objection I've usually heard is less about farm land being used for pasture instead of growing crops, and more about the amount of crops that have to be grown to feed the cattle... Growing corn to feed cows to feed humans is massively less efficient than growing corn to feed humans, or at least that's how the story goes.

Is there not an efficiency problem there that we could improve on?

(Not an expert in this area, genuinely curious.)

[Gustomaximus]

Not expert either but from forums, I think its a bit of both. People treat pasture country like it would be good for cropping in theoretical climate discussions, and the more correct growing corn/grain/hay etc to feed cattle to feed humans.

Another factor is cattle feed is often poor quality human food, so the reject stuff. That wheat that was harvested a bit early to avoid storms and no good for the flour is great for cattle.

Also, to the main topic of this thread, I wonder if its good for food security we grow extra crops to feed livestock. If there is a food supply shortage, cattle can go to slaughter and there is plenty of extra corn or other about for humans. We eat less meat for a few years while we fix the supply chains type thing.

The way we see supply shortages from COVID, Id hope we never become too efficient in the food supply chain. The consequence of something creating lower food production is far worse than limited computer chips. Its not a system we want to be over optimised for the good times.

[verve_rat]

Sure, but go back to pasture based systems. Cows are a fantastic way to turn grass into human edible nutrients. That will probably reduce the amount of meat on the market, but no where near the drastic levels some people talk about.

All land is not fungible, we need to use the best tools for the job, and that will be a mix of a bit of everything, including animal meat.