Eat Organic Meat or Become a Vegetarian?
The introduction of industrial agriculture and antibiotics in farming greatly increased food production and reduced the number of farm animals lost to diseases. These farming practices were important at a time of significant population growth but what has been the cost to farm animals and the environment?
Craig from Celsias recently wrote about some of the problems with factory farming as well as why vegetarianism might be a better choice for the environment. Some points made include:
- Nearly half of the water consumed in the US is used for livestock.
- More than 70% of grains grown in the US are fed to farm animals.
- The excrement from farm animals is not treated and ends up polluting water, destroying topsoil, and polluting air.
- Going vegetarian will reduce your carbon footprint.
- Raising animals on factory farms is cruel.
This last point is made by showing a video from Meat.org. I did find this video to be pretty sad but it doesn’t mean I think we shouldn’t eat meat, just that we should take more care in the way we raise and slaughter animals. I always thought it was ok to eat meat so long as the animals are treated well. Clearly, they often are not.
The fact that so much land, water, and resources are used for livestock is not the problem, if you ask me. Whether or not meat is healthy for us is debatable and I’m going to say that in moderation it is. But it doesn’t really matter; no one is going to convert the whole world to vegetarianism. I think it’s more important and practical to find ways to reduce the use of water and animal feed, by reducing waste, treat animal excrement and/or convert it into a useful product, and to improve slaughtering methods. Improving existing farm practices would go a long way to reducing our impact on the environment and cruelty to animals.
Producing free range and organic meat could be part of the solution as it is less damaging to the environment. From what I have seen on organic farms (small farms at least) the animals are treated relatively well. They are allowed to roam around during the day and are treated without the use (or minimal use) or antibiotics. In some instances the animals are almost like part of the family. Unfortunately, that is never going to be the case in a large scale organic farm but at least the use of organic feed results in less pollution of soils and waterways.
I think a combination of improved farming techniques and the introduction of more organic farms is the way to move ahead, rather than becoming a vegetarian.
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“I think a combination of improved farming techniques and the introduction of more organic farms is the way to move ahead, rather than becoming a vegetarian.”
Or better yet - BOTH! - depending on how far you can take it.
Alistair