the ten billion cows we are raising, each with four stomachs, are consuming way, way more farmland than people ever could. Its because they shit. It is an inneficient way of turning fifty pounds of plant and 600 liters of water into a quarterpounder.
Cruelty to animals left aside, the global problem of mass-produced meat is not that we kill so many animals, it is that we birth so many away from your predators. The predators are there to make sure that the grazers’ population doesnt run away from what is sustainable. In nature, a herd of cows eats, poops and moves on quietly. There numbers are kept in check by predators and where they can find grass while remaining hidden. Their poop regrows the grass, and they dont return for a long time.
We have made it that thousands and thousands of acres are being grown and completly used up to feed an abnormal amount of animals. This is killing soil. These usually nomadic animals are shitting in enormous amounts in concentration, wrecking water, land and fish, and it isnt good for them or their ‘meat’ either. Hence antibiotics come into play.
The whole thing is one big, goddamned mess for everyone, the poor workers, too, all so first world princesses can satisfy their grumbly wittow tumblies
