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Comment by knuthsat | Hacker News Reader

I do not understand how cities are blamed when a farm with 2500 dairy cows produces similar waste to a city of 411,000 people.[0] Cow poop is destroying the oceans due to massive amounts of mismanagement or just floods. Just goes to show the unpredictable n-th order effect of allowing the current ways of raising livestock (excluding the, now known for centuries, effect of global pandemics).

0: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/901V0100.txt?ZyActionD=Z...

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Two things. First, if it weren't for cities the demand for that many dairy cows wouldn't exist. Second, that study is just comparing manure production. Cities produce a great deal of other waste that cows don't.

Edit: Yes, just pointing out that people rightly look at cities because they are the driving force so any solution needs to consider that. I don't have a particular solution in mind, but I do hope if one is necessary it optimizes for personal freedom as well as sustainability. I lack the expertise to be specific, but making it economical to capture waste and runoff via tax credits or something might be a possibility. However, I know enough to know this isn't an issue that's going to be solved by me.

What solution are you implying with: "if it weren't for cities the demand for that many dairy cows wouldn't exist"

Maybe you were reaching for a need to wholistically look at the entire problem of both population and the resources needed to sustain it?

And I bet your solution is for everyone to go vegan.

Why would that be a solution if you still need to manage manure to grow plants? You would still have runoffs due to similar mismanagement. It's not the management of human wastewater that is an issue with ocean deadzones.

I guess you put your chips on the worst bet

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