Grist did a wonderful elevator interview with Denis Hayes who BTW was the coordinator of the first Earth Day way back in 1970. Denis as a new book out Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 Million Cows on America’s Health, Economy, Politics, Culture, and Environment which talks about the environmental destruction caused by livestock production and puts forward the idea that if we could solve the problems caused by the industrial, corporate production of meat, we could solve our worst environmental and climate change problems.
The video is brilliant and to the point. If all meat eaters did just as video recommends Haynes knows that there would be a drastic reduction of meat consumption. Works for me because the livestock production sector , especially in US and now developing nations such as China is a major contributor to climate change, to resource depletion especially water and to land and air degradation.
There is no way to continue current consumption of beef if there is a major move away from industrial farming of livestock, CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) because CAFO's were created to use the fewest resources, including water and land to produce the most beef. CAFO's are corporate farming operations.
Feedlots significantly reduce land and water resources required for raising beef, Capper points out. That’s because entirely grass-fed animals grow slower than corn- and soy-fed ones. Producing the current amount of beef with purely grass-fed operations would take an extra 131m acres of land per year and 468bn gallons of water, and it would increase the carbon footprint by the equivalent of adding 26.6m cars to the road, she said.
By seeking out meat grown as Hayes suggests one would have to forgo fast food, supermarket meat,and almost all restaurant meat. In other words all cheaply raised meat.
There is really no such thing as sustainable beef at current consumption levels. But, by a drastic reduction of meat consumption we might have a situation where livestock production is not able to create the massive environmental havoc it does today.