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Archive:000/Limits to sustainable animal consumption: Difference between revisions
Archive:000/Limits to sustainable animal consumption (view source)
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Tl;dr: The limit is about '''17 g protein/day''' per person - in total, from all grass-fed | Tl;dr: The limit is about '''17 g protein/day''' per person - in total, dairy and meat, from all grass-fed animals and wild-caught fish. | ||
==Farming== | ==Farming== | ||
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Grass-fed animal production can't really increase without [[habitat loss|destroying forests and other wildlife]], because most of the world's [[land|farmland]] is ''already'' pasture, and that's not even counting rangelands which are also already grazed upon. | Grass-fed animal production can't really increase without [[habitat loss|destroying forests and other wildlife]], because most of the world's [[land|farmland]] is ''already'' pasture, and that's not even counting rangelands which are also already grazed upon. | ||
==Hunting== | ==Hunting== | ||
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The rest of fish is farmed, which, as mentioned earlier, is a net loss of protein. Farmed fish are fed food crops that humans could otherwise eat. | The rest of fish is farmed, which, as mentioned earlier, is a net loss of protein. Farmed fish are fed food crops that humans could otherwise eat. | ||
==FAQ== | |||
Q: "What about chickens & pigs?"<br /> | |||
A: Since chickens & pigs are not ruminants, they depend on eating grains and other foods that humans ''could have'' eaten instead - this ''includes'' the "table scraps" often mentioned by people who own chickens.{{x|To see how to really use vegetables to the fullest, see [[food/full_use#vegetables]].}} | |||
[[Backyard chickens]] can't solve the ''food-inefficiency'' problem, but they ''can'' at least reduce the ''animal cruelty'' problem. Backyard chickens are generally treated better{{x|with some exceptions,<!--TODO: write about electric fences--> unfortunately}} than chickens in [[factory farms]]. Also, chickens are useful on crop lands because they can eat insects that would otherwise be pests.{{x|This can help with [[crop yields]]. Chickens also poop which can help [[fertilizer|fertilize]] the soil, but from a higher perspective, this doesn't add any minerals that weren't already there in the first place (the [[soil]] page will explain this in more detail).}} This could certainly contribute ''some'' chicken & eggs to the food supply, but it probably wouldn't be much compared to the status quo of chicken consumption.{{qn}} To be fair, when it comes to exceeding the "limits to sustainable animal consumption", chicken isn't as bad as beef. Cows have a much worse [[feed efficiency]], which is a problem when they are fed grains. | |||
==See also== | |||
* [[Food]] - main topic | |||
* [[Food/faq]] - <!--to clear up some misunderstandings about animal-based vs [[plant-based]] diets-->to answer questions such as "if we ate less meat, what would happen to existing farm animals?" | |||