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'Climate-Friendly' Meat Is a Myth
(time.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Does climate friendly meat actually exist? I don't really understand how, at least not at the volume people eat meat today.
it cannot exist
meat is inherently the most inefficient way of consuming calories, let alone the pain, suffering and horror it causes.
there’s no morally or ethically correct way to eat meat, unless you’re an indigenous tribe that literally has no other option.
Efficiency of calorie acquisition is not the same as sustainability though. Culling an overpopulation of deer that keeps a forest from developing or an invasive species that is wreaking havoc on an ecosystem can both be a net positive on the ecosystem and in terms of sequestering carbon. Meanwhile growing crops on former rainforest land is a clear net negative.
Those are edge cases though of course and with your average store selection, going with plant-based will just about always be more sustainable.
you have to ask, why are they becoming overpopulated though? And the answer is, because animal ag. Farmers kill the natural predators because they fuck with their animals that we eat.
The reason those predator species got killed to near extinction is probably a bit more broad and ugly than just concern for lifestock.
But you're correct of course that the main reason for the current overpopulation of many non-invasive species is a lack of predators and they should be reintroduced. But that's also not a thing that can happen from one day to the next, so even in the most optimistic scenarios some degree of human wildlife management still has a purpose.
Many farmers growing plants for animal feed. Also there are Deer farms that raise deer specifically for the hunting industry.
I would argue lab grown meat is fine, but afaik it is still more resources intensive to produce than, like, tofu. And it's not like it's going to be available in appreciable amounts in the near future.
Of course it exists. There is venison and other wild hunted meat. In many places these animals have to be shot anyhow for population control. Overhunting would be the only issue here.
Then there are purely pasture fed animals. Especially with goats this is common . But there are also some cattle and pig farms. As long as the land itself wasn't deforested and is given enough time to repair itself, it's perfectly sustainable.
Then there are things like keeping chicken in your garden that are only fed kitchen scraps. Depending on your household size you can even keep 1-2 pigs that way.
If any of these options are available to you, they can be more environmental friendly than some plant based foods. Locally sourced version is definitely better than having plants shipped across the globe.
As you said the only issue is the quantity and also the desire for premium cuts. A lot of meat is currently wasted because it's "undesirable". Some parts will find their way into animal food but a lot also just gets thrown away.
At the end I said at the volume of consumption we have. If everyone switched to wild game we'd instantly go from over population to over hunting and that's not sustainable. You wouldn't be able to support the volume with pasture raised without deforestation either. Raising your own animals also wouldn't match the volume that people eat meat currently either. Even if we were more efficient with the meat we use I still think we'd be orders of magnitude off. I'm not totalitarian anti meat, I just don't see any path to sustainability without huge decreases in consumption. The things you pointed out are great, but I think we can't mislead people into thinking that will be enough for them to not have to change their eating habits.