This is pure propaganda. Do people know that when they repeat it? Or does it just soak into the collective unconsious and become 'common sense' even though it doesn't make any sense?
Who told you these were the only two options? Why would you believe them? What other alternative uses for the land have you explored?
If you could grow something more valuable than grass on a piece of land you can be quite sure that most farmers would.
> The climate impact of diets are usually compared in terms of greenhouse gases that are emitted today. But this misses a hidden cost: the carbon opportunity costs of agricultural land. If we were not using this land to grow food, it would be possible that forests and wild grasslands grow on these lands. They would not only harbour wildlife, but also store much more carbon. Meat and dairy products need more land than alternatives, and therefore have a higher opportunity cost.
So it needing more land is a kinda worthless metric tbh.
So you kind of are suggesting that, while pretending to be some old lady with a pet sheep roaming the hills rather than a global industry producing 400 million tonnes of meat per annum.
That doesn't exclude farming, fishing or high-density food-farming (salmon, shrimps etc.). I mean, the number of issues with providing a couple of billion of humans with enough energy and variety in their diet is not insignificant..
A sheep roaming the hills is probably one of the better ways of producing protein..
About 75% of the diet of a regular Swedish cow is grass or grass-equivalents. The rest is made up of peas, beans, rapeseed and of course various grains.
The grains that go to animal feed usually is not fit for human consumption (well, wouldn't pass QC-controls).
Pigs doesn't really eat grass. Neither does chickens... So it's a bit of a different animal (HAHAHA) to farm chickens/pigs vs cows.
In 'standard' farming practice, a vast majority of the feed for cattle is grass, hay, or other sorts of grass things. The last month or so before slaughter they are fed heavy grain to bulk up a little and be more marketable. (source; my farm).
In Industrial scale farming (which one could argue is the actual standard now because people demand cheap meat), cattle are kept in feed lots for their lives and pushed heavy grain.
Pigs don't eat grass. Chickens don't eat grass.
Land used for livestock feed is 2x what is used for humans (in the US). Nevermind the land required to raise the livestock.
If you're so educated, answer this for me: how much extra plants do we need to cultivate to feed the world's animal livestock?
It's a lot. Way more than what people eat. WAY more.
No where does anyone rotate hay with row crops. Where do you live where that is common practice, and how does that work? New hay crops need a year at least to establish before you can cut for baling.