I heard something to do with Nitrogen and …cow farts(?) I am really unsure of this and would like to learn more.

Answer -

4 Parts

  • Ethical reason for consuming animals
  • Methane produced by cows are a harmful greenhouse gas which is contributing to our current climate crisis
  • Health Reasons - there is convincing evidence that processed meats cause cancer
  • it takes a lot more calories of plant food to produce the calories we would consume from the meat.

Details about the answers are in the comments

  • KitsuneHaiku@ttrpg.network
    51·
    1 year ago

    This is so wrong. I don’t even know where to begin. We grow so much alfalfa (huge waste of water) and soybeans in the US to support our own and other countries’ meat farming, then we ship it across the world. You could find this out with a simple Google search. This is willful ignorance.

    Greenhouse gas emissions - Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production

    Water usage - it takes over 1800 gallons of water to produce e just one pound of beef.

    In order to help, you don’t even have to go vegan. Reducing meat consumption is helpful too with something like “meatless Monday”

    • Misconduct@startrek.website
      4·
      1 year ago

      I live in AZ. You know the desert state? The state that catches on fire a lot? Yeah. We’ve had Saudis taking our water, for FREE, to grow food for their cattle back home for YEARS. It’s SO infuriating to see them asking us to conserve water and then looking the other way as we get drained for nothing.

      They’re not even the only ones dipping into our water either. It’s ridiculous.

    • roastpotatothief@lemmy.ml
      21·
      1 year ago

      greenhouse gases and water usage are different issues i didn’t address here.

      the usa is one of the “few parts of the world” i was talking about, that it is a bad example of sustainable farming.

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      animals are fed parts of plants that people can’t or won’t eat. all of the studies about the ecological impacts ignore this fact and then attribute the water used to produce, say, cotton to beef.

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      32·
      1 year ago

      85% of soybeans are pressed for oil for human use.

      and those water use stats include things like the water it takes to raise feed crops. it would make sense, except that we mostly feed livestock plants or parts of plants that people won’t eat. for example, we raise cotton for textiles, and the seed would be industrial waste if we didn’t feed it to cattle. why do we count the water used to make jeans in the water used to make beef? it’s just dishonest.