1,955
edits
Limits to sustainable animal consumption: Difference between revisions
Limits to sustainable animal consumption (view source)
Revision as of 16:55, 15 March 2023
, 15 March 2023→FAQ
No edit summary |
(→FAQ) |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
Tl;dr: The limit is about '''17 g protein/day''' per person - in total, from all grass-fed | Tl;dr: The limit is about '''17 g protein/day''' per person - in total, dairy and meat, from all grass-fed animals and wild-caught fish. | ||
==Farming== | ==Farming== | ||
| Line 67: | Line 67: | ||
|(grams/day per capita)(world.population) | |(grams/day per capita)(world.population) | ||
}} | }} | ||
^ Total amount of protein from both meat and dairy, combined. {{ | ^ Total amount of protein from both meat and dairy, combined. {{p|This is probably a slight overestimate, because feed efficiency ratios tend to be lower when cows are fed less grain.<!--TODO: add the citation-->}} | ||
</tab> | </tab> | ||
| Line 74: | Line 74: | ||
===Status quo=== | ===Status quo=== | ||
Ruminants (cows, buffalo, goats and sheep) produce a total of about 16 | Ruminants (cows, buffalo, goats and sheep) produce a total of about 16 g/day of protein per capita globally. | ||
* 10 g | * 10 g/day protein from milk{{x|from 297 mL/day of milk}} per capita | ||
* 6 g | * 6 g/day protein from meat{{x|from 30 g/day of meat}} per capita | ||
* This was calculated in [[Code:food2.sql]]. | * This was calculated in [[Code:food2.sql]]. | ||
Some of this food goes to waste unfortunately, but there might be ways to [[food waste#mitigation|mitigate that problem]]. | <!-- Some of this food goes to waste unfortunately, but there might be ways to [[food waste#mitigation|mitigate that problem]]. --> | ||
Not all of this is grass-fed. Also, grass-fed animal production can't really increase without [[habitat loss|destroying forests and other wildlife]], because most of the world's [[land|farmland]] is ''already'' pasture, and that's not even counting rangelands which are also already grazed upon. | |||
Total animal protein production (all animals) is about 35 g/day per capita globally. Consumption is less, because [[food waste|some of it goes to waste]].{{qn}} | |||
==Hunting== | ==Hunting== | ||
Hunter-gatherer lifestyles were sustainable in prehistoric times when the world population was less than 0.1 billion - today we are at 8.0 billion. Hunting might be a great survival tactic if you're lost in the woods. But it's not going to feed the world. There would be mass extinctions of wild animals [[overhunting|if we tried]]. | Hunter-gatherer lifestyles were sustainable in prehistoric times when the world population was less than 0.1 billion - today we are at 8.0 billion. Hunting might be a great survival tactic if you're lost in the woods. But it's not going to feed the world. There would be mass extinctions of wild animals [[overhunting|if we tried]]. | ||
==Fishing== | ==Fishing== | ||
| Line 126: | Line 127: | ||
The rest of fish is farmed, which, as mentioned earlier, is a net loss of protein. Farmed fish are fed food crops that humans could otherwise eat. | The rest of fish is farmed, which, as mentioned earlier, is a net loss of protein. Farmed fish are fed food crops that humans could otherwise eat. | ||
==FAQ== | |||
{{faq | |||
|What about chickens & pigs? | |||
|Since chickens & pigs are not ruminants, they depend on eating grains or other foods that ''people'' could eat - this ''includes'' the "table scraps" often mentioned by owners of chickens.{{x|To see how to really use vegetables to the fullest, see [[food/full_use#vegetables]].}} | |||
[[Backyard chickens]] can't solve the ''food-inefficiency'' problem, but they ''can'' at least reduce the ''animal cruelty'' problem. Backyard chickens are generally treated better{{x|with some exceptions,<!--TODO: write about electric fences--> unfortunately}} than chickens in [[factory farms]]. Also, chickens are useful on crop lands because they can eat insects that would otherwise be pests.{{x|This can help with [[crop yields]]. Chickens also poop which can help [[fertilizer|fertilize]] the soil, but from a higher perspective, this doesn't add any minerals that weren't already there in the first place (the [[soil]] page will explain this in more detail).}} This could certainly contribute ''some'' chicken & eggs to the food supply, but it probably wouldn't be much compared to the status quo of chicken consumption.{{qn| and could be added to the total}} To be fair, when it comes to exceeding the "limits to sustainable animal consumption", chicken isn't as bad as beef{{x|for the same amount of meat}}. Cows have a much worse [[feed efficiency]], which is a problem when they are fed grains. | |||
}} | |||
==Writer's comments== | |||
This page mostly deals with the ''inefficiency'' problems in agriculture. It doesn't account for ''other'' environmental issues such as methane emissions or soil depletion, or other ethical issues like animal cruelty{{x|On one hand, at least grass-fed cows aren't forced to spend their whole lives in cages. On the other hand, male calves are almost always separated from their mothers at birth and slaughtered for veal, since they aren't very useful to the milk or beef industry (only a small number of bulls are ever needed). This is obviously distressing for the cows whose sons are taken away and killed. There needs to be a page on this. It could talk about whether there are any less-cruel alternatives (sex-selective abortion, perhaps? would the cost be reasonable though?).}}. Maybe this page should be a ''subpage'', and there could be other subpages involving those issues. The main "Limits to sustainable animal consumption" page could provide just a summary (tl;dr) and links to all the subpages. | |||
==See also== | |||
* [[Food]] - main topic | |||
* [[Food/faq]] - <!--to clear up some misunderstandings about animal-based vs [[plant-based]] diets-->to answer questions such as "if we ate less meat, what would happen to existing farm animals?" | |||
* [[Plant-based]] food, which can provide the rest of dietary protein & calories. | |||