Farming practices and their impact on the environment

{Note - this thread split from here by moderators: Help our Aussie farmers}

I'm truly sorry that people are in dire straits, but my frank an honest opinion the matter is the day that we no longer raise animals for food and milk can't come soon enough.

Raising animals for food is the single biggest contributor to climate change there is. Greenhouse gasses from the meat and dairy industries are more than ALL of the worlds transport emissions combined, that's all cars, buses, trucks, trains and planes.

90% of rain forest clearing has been for grazing and cattle feed land.

It takes vast amounts of water to produce a kilo pf beef, water, chicken or milk, way more than it takes to produce the equivalent calories of vegetable produce. 20 times more water to make 1 kilo of beef than 1 kilo of rice, vegetables or fruit!

On a global scale we currently grow enough cattle feed to feed almost 9 billion people if we stopped feeding it to cows.

I can't recall the stats off hand but it takes something like 7 calories of plant based feed to "make" 1 calorie of beef (not to mention the water). What other industry can sustain a negative conversion rate like that! The planet has a system of checks and balance, we keep eating meat at a ratio of 1/7 and eventually something has to run out.

What we are doing is unsustainable on every level and we are completely wrecking the planet, yet no one bats an eye because steak tastes so good and lobbyists plough billions of dollars a year into the government pockets to ensure you keep the system going.

I'd me more than happy to donate to a system that aids farmers in converting planet destroying practices, cruelty and the death of over 7 BILLION land animals a year to raising crops for human consumption instead, that's just land animals. Fish is apparently harder to quantity but is potentially in the trillions per year, we are predicted to have fish-less oceans by 2048 though a combination of by-catch, over fishing and ocean dead-zones from factory farming run off poisoning the oceans.

If you're still with me and haven't stopped reading assuming I'm just a lefty, green vegan nut job then all I'll say is the information is out there, just do a bit of Googling.

I was a dairy eating, meat eating, over consuming regular red blooded male until aged 42 (last year) and took the micky out of vegans like anyone else, (where do you get you protein though?). I don't know what changed in me, I think a combination of learning just how bad for the planet meat & dairy farming is (not to mention how bad it is for the animals!), just how much resources it uses and how bad animal products actually are for you, Once I opened my mind a little and started reading for myself the real truth (which is all readily available once you start looking) is frighting and can't be ignored.

Suffice to say next week I will be celebrating my first year as a vegan and I will never go back and I certainly wont be handing money over to farmers raising animals for food. I spend my money locally in the local vegan cafes that are springing up all around us.

Change is happening, I'd like to think I'm on the right side of history.

Help the environment

The best way to save the planet? Drop meat and dairy | George Monbiot

 

There have been ice cores taken from depths which represent CO2 and oxygen levels (trapped in the ice) from many centuries ago, which show CO2 levels at several times more than our current levels are - and there was still ice.

 

So that's an excuse to keep pumping ***** into the atmosphere as much as we want?

EDITED TO ADD - from my (admittedly limited) understanding of climate change the result of a warmer planet is ultimately another Ice Age. Once ocean currents stop bringing warmer current south due to ice bergs melting and diluting the salt in the oceans the planet cools again and enters an Ice Age. There'll do doubt be another Ice Age, the issue is are we accelerating it?

 

Well; yes, because CO2 has no effect on anything as it turns out - as per the ice cores.
The entire original argument about CO2 was that it will raise the temperature - but how can that be true if there was ice at much higher levels of CO2 than we have now? doesn't make sense.

 

The original peddlers of the CO2 causing temperature rising issue were predicting melting ice and flooding of many major cities and so on. Many still are. CO2 doesn't cause climate change either; that anyone can prove.
Hopefully we will see the government withdraw from the Paris Accord and redirect all those funds into the Primary Producers' industry. It will be a far better use of that money for future employment across the Country in many different sectors associated with farming.

 

What if the CO2 caused a global warming back then, which halted the Gulf Stream, which caused an Ice Age, which trapped the CO2 in the historical ice record?

The articulle below would suggest CO2 is a factor in climate change:-

How do we know more CO2 is causing warming?

 

Hang on there. CO2 levels have not been as high as they currently are in over 800,000 years! I think assuming that the world back then is very similar to the world today would be a fallacy.

Now this is just plain wrong. From modelling we've known of the warming effect of CO2 for over a century.

Independently of that, here are the some measurements.


Long term historic.


Actual human records

Now I know that correlation does not prove causation, but if you think there isn't a link, you've got rocks in your head!

 

It isn't. "Climate Change" is merely a term invented by the Global Warming people when they realised they had been found out. You only have to look at charts over the last 100 years (and longer) relating to rainfall levels, tornadoes, hurricanes, temperature ranges and so on to see that the patterns are the basically the same as then...there is no severe "climate change".
Records of drought and severe rain falls and floods in these farming areas have been kept for a very long time and can be seen easily to support this as well.
The highest flood level ever recorded near where I lived as a child was recorded in 1974. Farms were flooded over a very large area for weeks and weeks, apparently.
If we had severe unprecedented "climate change" as you suggest; would we not be getting at least close to that level floods or even worse? There was one in 2016, but still not any worse than the 1974 version. Down by the river where people have been swimming for many decades, the 1974 flood level is marked on one giant tree near the water's edge - it is still there as the highest water mark of all time.
It devastated farmers then - as the latest one in 2016 did.
Flooding leaves rural NSW town of Deniliquin reeling

 

HaHAHAHHAHAHA, Lets pretend Vegan/vegetarian dietry requirements are NOT destroying planet earth..

where you think that the FARMERS getting your Wheat, nuts , soy vege & fruits coming from ..
i hope you dont literraly think wholefoods dealers go in to the forest and pick up tonnes of these produce to sell in the supermarkets/shops.

LoL.

even if you own a self sustain farm and go all naturale - the entire vegan/vegetarian consumer are just as bad as the devilish evil soul destroying life ending meat eaters.


the leader of the free world say earth is round and global warming is a lie so its must be true.

 

Wow, if the idiom is true, you must be living a very blissful life!
Global warming is a lie? Growing crops is as bad for the planet as meat? Right!

 

Huge amounts of petroleum based pesticides which can be toxic are used for intensive crop production where does this fit in.

As usual what may look straight forward(replace meat with crops) is not neccessarly so.

 

Huge volumes of petroleum based pesticides which can be toxic are used for intensive crop farming, where do these fit into the scheme of things.

What may look straight forward(replacing meat with crops) is not necessarily so.

 

anyform of farming including fishing is bad for the enviroment, my point is dont matter vegan/vegetarian farming or meat farming both are bad for the enviroment. Human are the single most destructive species on this planet.

i dont have the stats but if vegan farming is less harmful than meat farming, it dont mean is better

2 wrong dont make 1 right.

its like saying me stabing you is better than firing a shotgun at you.

the way to solve these problem is to be have sustainable farming/fishing, i am not smart enough to do this else i will be one of the richest human in the world. so no solution from me.

 

What if?... science only works on facts; not what if's.
But ok, lets go with your theory;
What caused the massive CO2 increase back then, that caused the "climate change", that caused the halt of the Gulf Stream, which caused the Ice Age?
Given there were no vehicles, no coal fired Power Stations, very few humans (if any), very few cows/sheep/camels/alpacas/goats (by today's levels for farming) - basically any modern-day reason for causation of increased CO2 - what could have caused such massive levels of CO2?
Without all these modern-day factors; it doesn't match that any climate change can be caused by humans or animals - if indeed there is any artificial climate change in the first place.
Is there climate change? Of course - but not anything that can be artificially changed by us.
Here's something to consider; Quote from Ian Plimer; noted Australian geologist, Earth scientist and more;
Ian Plimer - Wikipedia

"I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth.

Yes, folks, Mt. Pinatubo was active for over one year - think about it!!!!"

Also; keep in mind we currently have two Volcanos erupting and have been for several months - Mt.Agung (Bali) and Mt.Kilauea (Hawaii). These alone are probably producing as much or even more CO2 than the entire human race, based on Ian's statement.

 

As a person of, and on, the land I definitely agree with you that land clearing is the major problem ... but ... two major contributors are food waste - with up to 40% of grown foodstuff dumped on farm because it's not "supermarket quality" - and up to 20% of food bought is thrown out by consumers.

Innovation reducing on-farm food waste
Australians Throw Away Nearly $10Bn In Food Waste Each Year

Using this wasted food is the first step that needs to be taken to reduce the amount of food actually grown, and one that everyone can do ... the second step is to change the actual farming practices from soil destroying broadacre back humus protecting methods - planting hedgerows, bore planting, adding organics to the soil etc. I was lucky enough to sit in on a two day experience with Graeme Sait - and have never seen a more passionate, articulate and damn well correct speaker about soil improvement and climate change in my life - was mind blowing:



Perfect example is that Broken Hill used to be lush and green - then over the centuries the trees were removed for hundreds of miles around to feed the steel plant - the top soil was exposed to the winds and off it blew. Where has that ultra fine particle topsoil gone? Into the atmosphere, making the air denser and hence creating warming.

It's not what we're growing - it's how we're growing it - and how were choosing to eat it ... if only governments, wholesalers, retailers and consumers would listen

 

Is there any evidence to prove that air is getting denser from increased topsoil dust in the atmosphere?
There's this:
"How many volcanoes are erupting every day?

About 50 to 60 eruptions happen each month. Some volcanoes are in constant activity — Stromboli, Kilauea, or Sakurajima, for example. There are many examples of volcanoes which show some sign of renewed danger and then erupt within an hour, though more commonly, within one day."
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...ome..69i57.13029j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Watch the TEDx above - and then do some future research

Research is also showing that the introduction of music (birdsong) improves plant health by triggering the leaf to open it's underneath pores to permit the absorbtion of nutrient rich dew into the leaf - and what's missing from broadacre farms? Birds.

 

One of the biggest issues with farming, especially in places like Australia and the US, is the reliance on huge industrial farms that are very far away from population centres meaning that the produce has to travel long distances, often by road transport. We need to focus much more on local urban farming to help to offset this: Urban agriculture - Wikipedia