“I’m going to cut the amount of meat in my diet because I just really want to be more environmentally sustainable.”
I’ve seen and heard the above statement quite a bit recently. Folks are considering adopting a meatless, or at least reduced-meat, diet out of deep and genuine concern for the well-being of the environment.
And I get it.
I 100 percent understand the concern. I want to be more sustainable, too. I have a deep and genuine concern for the well-being of our environment, too. My concern, however, is not what happens if we keep eating meat. But rather, what happens if we stop.
I honestly fear what our world would look like without meat because last time I checked, beef was meat. And not only is beef my family’s livelihood, but also, I legit fear the unintended consequences our environment would suffer if we all cut beef out of our diet.
Saving the Sandhills.
Cattle literally saved these Sandhills that I call home.
True story.
The Nebraska Sandhills are one of God’s great wonders and are truly a thing of beauty. What was once a barren desert made up of 20,000 square miles of sand dunes, is now a unique ecosystem that is home to a countless number of plant and wildlife species. This diverse and fragile landscape is thriving now because of the cattle that graze these hills, the impact they make, and the people who manage them.
Would grass grow in the Sandhills without cattle to graze it? Sure – but not for long.
Standing grass blocks sunlight hindering new plant growth. When cattle graze a pasture, they eat the more tender grasses and trample some of the less tender grass and plants into the ground. As the cattle graze and trample, they produce digested plant matter (more commonly known as poop). The combination of the grazing, trampling and pooping fertilizes and secures the soil, retains moisture, promotes healthy plant growth, and prevents erosion.
As ranchers, we don’t just let our cattle graze all willy-nilly wherever they want, whenever they want. Nope. Each year, we come up with a grazing plan, that serves as a guide on where and when we should graze certain pastures. We’re real original with naming – we know.
Anyway, the grazing plan is based on the nutritional needs of the herd, time of year, observations we’ve made during the previous year, and which pastures could stand to have a little more litter (more about litter HERE). Strategic grazing (and littering) helps us protect and preserve the Sandhills’ resources and beauty, ensuring we will be raising cattle far into the future.
Cattle are upcyclers.
Like the majority of grazing land, the Sandhills are unarable. “Unarable” means that they are not suitable for growing any sort of fruit and veg a human would want to eat let alone digest. It’s super hilly here (as the name suggests), our growing season is insanely short, and the soil (and by “soil” I mean sand) isn’t great at holding water and the nutrients needed to grow things people like to eat. So, not great for farming.
Trust me, I’ve tried gardening in the sand. It doesn’t work very well.
These hills, however, are great for growing grass (provided there are cattle here, see above). And cattle eat the grass and turn it into a something we can eat – beef. They can do this because they have a four-chambered stomach. The largest chamber is the rumen, which helps them get the nutrients they need from plants, and part of plants, that humans don’t eat or can’t digest.
In other words, they upcycle.
And, their upcycling superpower is not limited to grass. They can turn all kinds of things we can’t eat into delicious, nutritious beef – things like beet pulp from making sugar and distillers grains from brewing or ethanol production. They can also more efficiently use the nutrients within a kernel of corn than we can, but that may be a story for another time.
The point is that cattle have the unique ability to turn something that would otherwise be waste into something that tastes great and we can actually eat. That’s pretty impressive and insanely sustainable, if you ask me.
The fact of the matter
Now, I’m not here to tell you what to eat or what not to eat. I’m not even saying we can’t do more to improve the way we raise beef and become even more sustainable. We can. And we are working on it, constantly. But what I am saying is that going meatless is not going to save the environment or make even the slightest positive impact.
It would be a detriment to the environment.
The truth is that everything we do as humans impacts the environment. And if we really want to become more sustainable, the greatest impact we can make is reducing waste, specifically food waste.
We waste a staggering amount of food each year. It’s truly embarrassing. And it’s something everyone, myself included, could stand to improve upon. If we want to save the environment, we need to start there.
For the sake of brevity, I kept this short(ish). But this is a subject I could go on and on about. So, if you have questions that weren’t addressed here or would like more clarification, please feel free to reach out. I’m here and I’m happy to help! 🙂
Hello! I’m Terryn – the wife, mother, food safety enthusiast, Stormy Kromer fanatic who has slightly (okay, a lot) random tendencies, dabbles in photography, and shares (maybe a little too much) here at FFB.
Well Said!! Thanks for using your voice to speak for us Cattle Producers. We all know what we want to say but sometimes have trouble finding the right words! Keep up the good work!
It’s truly my pleasure. And thank you so much for your kind words, Paige!
The problem I see, is that very few cows are raised according to this poetic description. If we all decreased our beef intake, then we could all share these environmentally friendly Sandhill cows; win win, yes? Making the argument that the beef industry in its current iteration is a good thing for the environment is a stretch that makes rubber bands jealous. I feel for the farmers, absolutely, but this just sounds like super biased hogwash.
Hello, Omnivore!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment with your concerns. I truly appreciate respectful dialogue! So, let’s break this down.
“The problem I see, is that very few cows are raised according to this poetic description.”
I’m honestly flattered that you think my writing is poetic and honestly glad that’s the problem you see, because it’s not a problem.
Most cattle are raised just like this, grazing pastures and eating grass, in different parts of the country of course. And they spend most of their lives there.
It’s true that some of them stay on grass for their entire lives, while others go to feed yards for a short time before they go on to provide us with beef. But that only makes beef more sustainable. Grass-fed/finished cattle help with things like preventing erosion and carbon sequestration, while grain finished cattle help reduce waste and emissions. Because contrary to popular belief, grain-finished cattle actually emit less methane than their grass-finished counterparts. You can read more about those emissions HERE.
“If we all decreased our beef intake, then we could all share these environmentally friendly Sandhill cows; win-win, yes?”
Win-win? Not really. It’s not just Sandhills cows that are environmentally friendly. It’s all cows.
All cows are upcyclers, recyclers, and overall, good for the environment. I say “overall” because cows do emit methane (again, read more about that HERE). However, the benefits of beef on the environment far exceed the drawbacks.
As I said at the very end of the article in the fine print, I kept it short for the sake of brevity. Quite frankly, it would take a (large) book to touch on how all the different operations and segments of the beef community work together as part of the entire food system to benefit the environment.
The fact of the matter is everything we do as humans has an impact on the environment. And I stand by what I said in the article – if we really want to become more sustainable, the greatest impact we can make is reducing waste. No one has to eat less of anything, but rather waste less of everything.
“Making the argument that the beef industry in its current iteration is a good thing for the environment is a stretch that makes rubber bands jealous.”
I’d be thrilled to make rubber bands jealous, unfortunately this is not a stretch. It’s the truth. But as I stated in the article, we do have improvements to make and we’re working every day toward becoming even more sustainable.
We do this by investing our own dollars in scientifically sound, peer-reviewed research (such as the Beef Lifecycle Assessment) to help us pinpoint areas of improvement, develop new technologies and help us become more efficient, and thus, more sustainable.
“I feel for the farmers, absolutely, but this just sounds like super biased hogwash.”
Thank you for your compassion and feeling for those of us who farm and ranch. Your compassion truly means a lot.
And, you are 100 percent correct. I am biased toward beef.
I’ve spent my entire life raising cattle (I grew up on a feed yard). I studied, and have a degree in, animal science. And I’ve seen the positive impact they make on the environment first-hand. So, yeah – biased I am.
To say this piece is “hogwash” – well, that’s one way to look at it. But we’re going to have to agree to disagree there, friend. I’m fully aware that not everyone will agree, and that’s okay. I’m just thankful you reached out.
So true and very well written! As a college student I encounter this argument quite often and as a farm girl I strive to promote our cattle industry!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Larna! 🙂