• schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    NO2, methane from byproduct/digestion, soil carbon release from land overuse. Downstream methane release due to nitrate pollution.

    The overwhelming majority of cropland is for “biofuel”, industrial chemicals and animal feed.

    Industrial scale regenerative agriculture has lower yields in the short term, but doesn’t emit NO2 and leave behind a dust bowl (requiring clearing a new forest).

    Eating crops directly rather than feeding cows is far more effective than changing fertilizer source. Eating organic crops uses a small fraction of the crop land that eating beef fed on intensively grown corn does.

    Biointensive methods have many times the yield as industrial agriculture but are very labour intensive – automating them would save a lot more emissions.

    Precision fermentation uses a tiny fraction of the land per unit of protein/nutrients.

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Eating crops directly rather than feeding cows is far more effective than changing fertilizer source.

      cows eat a lot of grass, and usually from land that isn’t suitable for crops. the silage they get is mostly parts of plants that people can’t or won’t eat.

      • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Paltering.

        Corn and soy grown for the purpose of large animal feed exceeds the amount of cropland used directly for human consumption in areas where <20% of calories and protein come from red meat.

        • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          almost all soy (about 85%) is crushed for oil for human use. the vast majority of what’s fed to animals is the industrial waste from that process.

          only 7% is fed directly to animals.

          i don’t know the numbers for corn, but i do know that globally, about 2/3 of all crop calories go to people.

        • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          almost no soy goes to cattle at all. calling me “paltering” while jumping from one segment of agriculture to another is just hypocritical rhetoric. try addressing the topic instead of characterizing me.