"Cows are the real Hogs"

[handmade34]

http://blog.ucsusa.org/cows-are-the-real-hogs-the-ipcc-and-the-demand-side-of-agriculture-486

"...The upshot of these studies is that cows use enormous amounts of biomass as well as the large majority of the planet’s agricultural land, yet produce a very small amount of our food.

...About 60 million square kilometers of land around the world is used for agriculture. A quarter of that is cropland while three-quarters of it is used for grazing... the vast majority of the energy from agricultural land is used for cattle (and other ruminants), while only a small portion is used to produce plant-based food for direct human consumption or feed for pigs and chickens (what scientists call “monogastrics” — or literally animals with one stomach).

The crops and pasture grasses produced on agricultural land can be measured as the energy, originally from the sun, that is in the biomass that we or our animals grow or eat. For example, crops and pasture are used to produce cattle, but crops like corn are also grown to feed people directly. All of the energy involved in these processes can be expressed in billions of tons of biomass.

..most of the land and most of the biomass is used to feed cows. But when we look at the proportion of human food that is produced from all this energy, we see how inefficient this part of the human diet is. Cows, despite taking in 86 percent of the biomass, produce very little food (only 8 percent of the total). In contrast, both plant-based foods and chickens and pigs are much more efficient converters of biomass into things we can eat..."

[2naSalit]

1. Lest we forget

this informative video...

oldie but goodie.

[handmade34]

2. thanks...

very few people think about the "external costs" that we pay in so many ways...

[2naSalit]

3. Indeed

It's why TeeVee and all those games and iphones etc are a bad thing... merely a seductive distraction from that to which people really need to pay attention.

[stuntcat]

4. k

(hahah as if this kinda news will break through to ANYONE)

k&r

[Bill USA]

5. livestock produce 51% of the World's GHG emissions

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6297

... But recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

Reviewing both direct and indirect sources of GHG emissions from livestock, the study finds that previous calculations have both underestimated and overlooked certain emissions sources as well as assigned emissions they deem to be livestock-related to the wrong sectors. The authors locate these discrepancies in previous analyses of livestock respiration, land use, and methane.

Based on their research, Goodland and Anhang conclude that replacing livestock products with soy-based and other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. "This approach would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentrations-and thus on the rate the climate is warming-than actions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy."

livestock eat grass (corn in the U.S.) and produce GHG emissions in the form of methane gas, which has 75 times the heat trapping capacity of CO2 for 25 to 30 years until it breaks down into CO2 and other molecules.

Ignited Cow Pharts nearly blow roof off barn in Germany

also:

two brave lads: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/62756/?autoplay=true

[eppur_se_muova]

6. "Hooved locusts", in Jeremy Rifkin's words.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2737724W/Beyond_beef

[oldhippie]

7. But cows taste better .....

.... so it's all worth it.

[happyslug]

8. How much of the grazing land usable for something else?

Much of the Sahara Desert is only fit grazing. That us true of much of the American southwest, Australia , the Middle East and the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia.

If we go to far north the crop season is to short thus if no tree then fit only for grazing. Musk Ox is Grazer of the far north.

My point is 75% grazing land includes land unfit for anything else and that includes land used by wildlife. Thus the chart has some questions that need to be addressed namely can the grazing land be used for something else? I doubt it, thus that point is meaningless.

[quadrature]

9. the same politicians who eat Wagyu beef @$100 a pound ...

(and everyone knows who I am talking about)

are telling the 99%ers to eat lawn clippings.