More food stuffs. Yesterday, Sarah and Tara shared this article on the impact of meat production on the environment. It’s a good summary of what sounds like a well researched book.

I generally dug what is considered to be a well known geographical issue as Mr Monbiot points out that, traditionally, cattle and pigs fed off terrain not suited to growing food and on food not fit for human consumption.

In the face of factory farming, however, we reach a stumbling block with current practices: “If pigs are fed on residues and waste, and cattle on straw, stovers and grass from fallows and rangelands…meat becomes a very efficient means of food production.”

That’s an if that probably eliminates 95% of meat currently produced (super markets, fast food, restaurants, etc) and takes us back to the geographical issue of where these land areas and food sources come from. ie, are there enough scraps available to feed the volume of animals we’re raising for meat.

Mr Monbiot continues with: “we could still produce around half the current global meat supply with no loss to human nutrition”.

Unfortunately, I don’t see factory farmers making an effort to change their practices, all while they continue to pull soya beans out of the amazon. Disgraceful stuff really, and I encourage you to not be a party to this. If you’re going to buy meat, buy from local, trusted sources who know and care about these things.