this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
813 points (92.1% liked)

Science Memes

11148 readers
3738 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
813
It is very therapeutic to garden, though. (lemmy.today)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
349 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 58 points 6 months ago (5 children)

counterpoint: industrial agriculture exists mostly to sustain animal products

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

That's a really good counterpoint.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Crops like soybeans are mostly cultivated for animal consumption, but are you sure it holds for the entirety of the industrial agriculture?

[–] sukhmel 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

You mean, compared to what goes to the market for people?

I don't eat much of not industrial agriculture products, even local farms only produce fruits, and I would say they are also industrial (not sure where is the line)

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Cows and other farm animals need a lot of food:

More than three-quarters of global agricultural land is used for livestock, despite meat and dairy making up a much smaller share of the world's protein and calories. [...] However, only half of the world’s croplands are used to grow crops that are consumed by humans directly. We use a lot of land to grow crops for biofuels and other industrial products, and an even bigger share is used to feed livestock.

Source (OWID)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

As per the article two thirds of that 'agricultural land' is graze-lands, so like a 12.5% of that agricultural land is actually farmland dedicated to feed livestock.

[–] sukhmel 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I see, 25% is still not too little, I expected this to be less than 10% based on how you phrased the first comment. But you're right, it's possible to greatly reduce strain on land

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That wasn't me, but I found out about it relatively recently and I'm happy to share it.

[–] sukhmel 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh, true, sorry I'm a bit sloppy

Thanks for sharing, anyway ❤️

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

No worries :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Not only that. But our agriculture is so centered around animals that we also have a huge surplus of manure (the animals' feces, horn shavings, basically anything left of them) that we then use on all kinds of plant crops. It is so baked into the system that it will be a long way before we can really get a animal-free agriculture...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

This is certainly true for our modern agriculture today. But is this really true for any possible industrial agriculture? Couldn't we also have a plant based industrial agriculture leaving domesticated animals out of the equation altogether? Sure, we are a far way off from that. But I think it would be achievable and that we should aim for it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

The animal products are also just more industrial scale, subsidized farming, too.