Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

VaelinX t1_ixf12d2 wrote

Reply to comment by thedancingwireless in [Bloomberg] Here’s How America Uses Its Land by JPAnalyst

We. Fucking. Love. Hamburgers.

Vox did a good breakdown on the Colorado River water usage in the western US. We could get every human in the west to bathe only twice a week and it wouldn't make a dent. The ONLY reasonable place to cut water usage is livestock. Notably alfalfa: a particularly water-hungry crop used exclusively to feed livestock... much of it exported overseas.

0

Ok-disaster2022 t1_ixf8qwn wrote

There are miniature breeds of cows that are more feed efficient, have lower meat wastage when processing, are easier to manage, the meat is more tender, and less destructive in their environments. We should be switching to those breeds for major production. Downside is technically your cuts if meat would be smaller.

2

LetMeUseMyEmailFfs t1_ixghun8 wrote

More feed efficient, but by how much? If you’re driving a Hummer, an F150 is probably more fuel efficient, but it’s still an unreasonable fuel guzzler.

The only way is to eat less meat. There’s no need for people to eat meat with every meal or even every day.

1

VaelinX t1_ixfdm5g wrote

Great! Lets do it all. I'm sure there'd be up-front costs with switching, but the western water crisis isn't getting any better.

I know there are management plans - but I don't know that they're being implemented. There are always challenges with trying to direct industry at the Federal level. You hear about Republicans (incorrectly) claiming that the left wants to "ban cows" in regards to methane production as a greenhouse gas. So you can bet that if this can be used as a political wedge issue, then it will be.

The suggestion I've seen is similar to farms subsidized for leaving fields fallow to keep from overproducing some goods - do that with alfalfa - but then seed producers will be out and cow feed prices will increase as they need to come form farther... basically, there will be those who lose out one way or another - so until it becomes a *financial* crisis, it's not seen as a crisis. Meaning it won't happen until water rationing to farmers gets bad enough (and it's starting to get there).

0