Thread by @lesleyraekelly

Meat, land and water - a thread

You don’t have to go far to read headlines in the news or celebrities (cough Ellen) to eat less meat to save the planet. Many are concerned it takes too much water and land to raise a cow and therefore, we should eat less beef.  Is that true?

For comparison purposes, I have a steak and my cell phone. Why the comparison? Half of the world’s population has a cell phone. Both of these require water to produce, and while half of the world’s population has a cell phone, beef is the one necessary for survival.

In the US, beef requires 441 gallons of water to produce one pound of boneless beef, which sounds like a lot of water. It can be considered large compared to water needed to grow and produce foods like a loaf of bread (150 gal/lb), watermelon (100 gal/lb), and rice (35 gal/lb)

But did you know it takes more water to drive around in a car and use a cell phone than it does to raise beef?
 
Those headlines don’t state it takes a whopping 39,090 gallons of water to produce a small car and 3190 gallons to produce a cell phone.

In our house, we have 2 vehicles, 2 cell phones and a whole lot of electronics.....

When I saw Ellen’s video about eating less meat to save the planet, I thought of how many pools, cars, homes and jets she has 🤷‍♀️

We need protein as part of a healthy diet, whether that comes from beef, poultry, beans, nuts, etc. It takes water and land to raise and grow all our food, to have products in our homes and as part of our everyday lives. So why are we pointing fingers at meat and ag so much?

Drought has hit our farm the last couple of years and we understand the impact when there is a shortage of water. Water & land are 2 of the most precious resources we have and there’s a really great story when it comes to ag’s water and land use that is missing from Ellen’s video

In comparison to 5 billion of us with cell phones, there are 996 million head of cattle in the world in 2018, (shrunk since 2014) and land & water use for cows has also decreased. Today, more meat & milk is produced with fewer animals, less land & less water.

In the US, dairy cow numbers fell from 12 million in 1970 to 9.4 million in 2018, yet milk production per cow doubled in that time. Producing a gallon of milk uses 90% less land, 65% less water with a 63% smaller carbon footprint than in 1944 due to improvements made by farmers

Now for land. Two thirds of agricultural land in the world is considered marginal and cannot grow a crop well but can be used to grow cows. The only thing that can grow on pastureland is grass, native plants and grazing livestock.

Why do we blame cows for taking up so much land that can’t be used for much of anything else, but in the US, it’s reported that 12,000 square miles are dedicated to just parking lots, roughly the size of Vermont and Connecticut combined?

This post isn’t to sway you into eating more or less meat but to show that there are two sides to every story. Whether we grow crops or raise livestock, we care about our natural resources.

We know we have more work to do, but we have been working hard at adapting and being part of the solution. When you read or hear that you should eat less meat to save the planet, know that there are farmers & ranchers behind the scenes are doing their best to save the planet too

Post and resources can be found here: facebook.com/highheelsandca…