E.Coli. Heard of it? It is one of the premier diseases of civilization, in this case, the end point of industrial agriculture. E.Coli, is a common resident in both humans and cows. Some variants are harmless, other are even useful to us. But, there is a type of E.Coli strain, which causes intestinal bleeding that can result in kidney failure, brain damage and death.
The harmless strains of E.coli, died out in the unnaturally acidic digestive tract of unnaturally fed cattle. Our modern economic insanity, that has created corn-fed or soy-fed cattle, can't see reason. It can only see a mountain of corn or soybean cheaper to buy that it is to grow, subsidized by thousands of years of natural capital, topsoil, fossil fuel, aquifier water and of course, taxpayers.
My first argument against the political vegetarians isn't an argument at all. It is an agreement. Factory farming is a nightmare, from every angle, ethically, ecologically, nutritionally. There is no word besides torture to describe the experience of laying hens in battery cages, so crowded that they can't lie down or open their wings, driven insane by the bright glare of lights that stay on forever! Torture also describes what happens to pigs, animals that are smarter than dogs, so smart in fact if they had digits instead of hooves they could probably learn some so called 'sign' language. Anyone who watched FOOD INC documentary, would know how those poor hens were tortured and most of them were too fat, until they can't stand and collapsed on the ground. Thanks to synthetic growth hormones, antibiotics, artificial lightings and other god knows what chemicals been injected to this animal.
The air in hog factories is laden with dust, dander and noxious gases, which arew produced as the animals urine and feces build up inside the sheds. Respiratory disease is rampant. The unnatural flooring and lack of exercise causes obesity and crippling leg disorders, while the deprived environment produces neurotic coping behaviors such as repetitive bar biting and sham chewing, meaning chewing nothing! They are forced to live in their own feces, urine and vomit, and even amid the corpes of other pigs!
This torture life ends at the slaughterhouse, where if not properly stunned and killed, they may be boiled alive in a rendering vat. No moral person can face these facts without a sickening of the spirit. Where I part company with the political vegetarians, is when they conflate factory farming with any and all meat. Now, majority of vegetarians simply is ignorance. I know this statement may provoke or upset some of the readers who are vegetarians, but let's think it once again. Do most vegetarians know that soil eats cows?
Now, let me tell you this. The estimated 5 pounds of grains fed to cattle to produce one pound of beef for human beings represents a colossal waste of resources in a world still teeming with people who suffer from profound hunger and malnutrition. Yes, I agree it is a waste, but to a certain extent. As we have seen in abundance, growing that grain will require the felling of forests, the plowing of prairies, the draining of wetlands, and the destructions of topsoil.
In most places on earth, it will never be sustainable, and where it just possibly might be, it will require rotation with animals on pasture.And it is ridiculous to the point of insanity to take the world-destroying grain and feed it to a ruminant who could have happily lived on those now extinct forests, grasslands, and wetlands of our planet, while building topsoil and species diversity.
My question back to you, are you an environmentalist? If yes, why are you eating annual monocrops? According to British Group Vegefam, a 10-acre farm can support 60 people growing soybeans, 24 people growing wheat, 10 people growing corn and only 2 people producing cattle.
Well, how much truth is in that claim? Set a side the fact that diet of soybeans, corn and wheat will result in massive malnutrition, along with the stuff like pellagra, retardation and blindness, and ultimately premature death. By contrast, a 10-acre farm of perennial polyculture can produce as follows:
3000 eggs
1000 broilers
80 hens
2000 pounds of beef
2500 pounds of pork
100 turkeys
50 rabbits
Not to mention a few inches of topsoil as well. As I did mentioned earlier, two third of the world is utterly unsuited to growing grains. Check this out. A pound of wheat, can be grown with 60 pounds of water, whereas, a pound of meat, requires 2500 to 6000 pounds. On pasture, beef cattle will drink about 8 to 15 gallons of water daily. The average pasture raised steer(cattle) takes about 21 months to reach market weight, thats 630 days, at eight pounds a gallon. for a total of anywhere between 40000-75000 pounds of total water for an entire cow! Thats around 450-500 pounds of meat, with another 145 pounds of fat.
Bear in mind, a dairy cow will drink more water, anywhere from 25-50 gallons, depending on the breed, temperature and the amount of milk she is producing. For nine gallons of milk, she will drink about 18 gallons of water.
More importantly, comparing that pound of beef with that pound of wheat. The beef contains almost twice as much calories then wheat. Calories are simply energy, which means beef is providing substanstially more. If you would want to compare pounds of water for calories(energy) produced, wheat and grass fed beef ends up almost even. And there's more then simply energy, those beef calories, contains more nutrients then wheat, especially essential protein and fat. The numbers on those are 21g vs 13.5g, and 8.5 vs 1.8g respectively.
It's also crucial to understand that protein in beef contains full spectrum of necessary amino acids, and it's easy for humans to assimilate, while the protein in the wheat is low quality and largely inacessible due to its protein is comes wrapped with indigestible cellulose. In a nutshell, for water used, beef is better.
Most importantly, animals aren't ever expanding water balloons. For a cattle, almost all of the water consumed will be returned to the soil in the form of urine and feces laden with nutrients and bacteria, to the land that needs it. Everyone has to realize that attempting annual crops will DESTROY that land forever. That is the point the political vegetarians need to understand. Who cares if more food can be produced by farming when farming is destroying the world?
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