I heard something to do with Nitrogen and …cow farts(?) I am really unsure of this and would like to learn more.

Answer -

4 Parts

  • Ethical reason for consuming animals
  • Methane produced by cows are a harmful greenhouse gas which is contributing to our current climate crisis
  • Health Reasons - there is convincing evidence that processed meats cause cancer
  • it takes a lot more calories of plant food to produce the calories we would consume from the meat.

Details about the answers are in the comments

  • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    animals are fed parts of plants that people can’t or won’t eat. all of the studies about the ecological impacts ignore this fact and then attribute the water used to produce, say, cotton to beef.

    • fkn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      ~This is false. Cows in the US are primarily fed corn. Not the can’t/won’t eat stuff.~

      Edit: I am wrong. They said only fed about 8% human edible grain.

      • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        most cows eat mostly grass most of their lives. they also eat silage. and yes there is corn, but that’s not the bulk of any cows diet

        • fkn@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not in industrial farms. There is no grass there. They don’t bring hay.

          It’s literally a sales pitch in the US to disambiguate corn fed and grass fed cattle.

          • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            you just don’t know what you’re talking about. cattle are raised in the field and then finished on feed lots.

            grass fed just means that the cattle were only fed grass. but all cattle eat grass

        • fkn@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          95% of all cattle feed is corn in the US. Raised to 600lbs or so before being put on the feed lot. Finishing in this case can be the final 400-600lbs fed on 95% corn.

          About 40% of all corn grown in the US is grown exclusively for feed nearly all of which is used within the US.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      won’t eat

      Is not the point of the argument when we’re taking about what humans shouldn’t eat. We can’t cater to wants anymore when growing percentage are starving.

      can’t eat

      Which is bullshit. We didn’t invent their diet. we substituted it. They might eat grass but we eat plenty of other green substitutes. The amount we consume of it doesn’t come close to their needs though.

      • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        cows eat mostly grass but, for instance, poultry are fed a lot of soy. that soy is usually (almost always) in the form of so-called “soy meal” or “soy cake”, but that is actually a waste product from pressing soybeans for oil. it would be industrial waste if we didn’t feed it to livestock.

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Soy oil is only one form of oil that humans can use. One of many. none of this argues the points put forward. It still requires much more water than if we stuck to humans eating less meat. And it not even requiring for people to completely cut out meat. Which has more pros for both humans and cows than cons.