Read a sequence of 2 Monbiot articles:
Haven't read Simon Fairlie's Meat book yet.
Thoughts on meat production:
- Ethically: inappropriate animal suffering is inherent in mass production of meat, BUT vegan food production does cause indirect animal suffering in the form of habitat displacement (think soya plantations), food web disruption through pest control...other e.g.s?
- Sustainable meat production can be achieved: year round grass fed hardy Red Poll cattle, North Ronaldsay sheep on beaches and estuaries consuming seaweed. The problem is feeding livestock grain crops that take up land area and resources to grow. Originally was meat more a byproduct of mixed farming? Were livestock kept to eat grain harvest leftovers/straw/pasture grass and provide fertility in the form of manure and other functions? The Permaculture livestock animal has multiple functions, and its intrinsic behaviours are used as inputs on the farm, e.g. pigs rooting around in stubble fields, loosening soil and fertilising as they go; the use of "chicken tractors".
- Is veganism always the greenest option? Meat/livestock products may be the only feasible yield available from a particular area of land. Think Scottish highlands, Yorkshire Dales where sowing of a vegetable or grain crop is too difficult and the most useful thing that can be done with that land is to put it down to pasture. The vegan alternative would be getting as much plant food from the land as possible and importing the rest?
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