Recap of Part I

Just 29% of earth’s surface is land; the rest is ocean. Around 71% of land is habitable, meaning it can support life. Half of earth’s habitable land is used for agriculture, the balance being forests (37%), shrub (11%), urban/built-up areas (1%), and freshwater (1%). Over three-fourths of agricultural land is used for livestock, most of which goes to the care and feeding of cattle.

The earth’s biosphere is in the middle of a mass extinction event, thanks mostly to the loss of wild habitat to agriculture. We need to shrink the amount of land used for agriculture to expand wild habitat and protect endangered species. Since livestock farming destroys more habitat than other types of agriculture and cattle are the most destructive of livestock animals, it would make sense to go after cattle ranchers and their enablers, aka those who eat beef. By “go after”, I mean stop the expansion of cattle ranching and do more to convince people that eating beef is bad for the planet.

Unfortunately, global demand for beef keeps growing, especially in Asia and Africa, and not much can be done about the food preference of billions. Probably the best we can do to save the biosphere is fix the supply side by maximizing the productivity of cattle ranchers and minimizing the impact of cattle on the environment.

Common Misconceptions

Agricultural land and wild habitat are mutually exclusive.

This is mostly true, but not for sustainably managed cattle on lands already adapted to grazing ruminants.

As long as demand for beef keeps rising, more and more land must be cleared for cattle.

Not all ranchers clear land for cattle. For example, US cattle typically graze on marginal grasslands that were populated by millions of roaming bison and pronghorn antelope long before European contact. This land is cattle-ready and does not need to be cleared.

Grazing cattle inevitably harm ecosystems and biodiversity.

Not true. Per Sheila J. Barry/ UC Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources: “Well-managed grazing can control non-native plants and maintain habitat and ecosystems to support a variety of species…maintaining ranching, or managed grazing for beef cattle production, can support the conservation of many threatened and endangered species…” In Patagones, a semi-arid area of Argentina, some farmers are working to repair damaged ecosystems by switching from growing cereal to improved and natural pasture for grazing livestock.

If North Americans ate less beef, North America would export more beef and therefore reduce demand for beef from the tropics.

Beef from the tropics is leaner and cheaper than beef from developed countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The export markets are different too. The US exports to higher-income countries where demand growth is slow, while tropical beef goes to middle-income countries where demand is rising quickly.

Sustainable Intensification: An Example

“Wellison Oliveira Silva supervises this 530-hectare (1,300-acre) ranch. He records the animals’ feed intake daily, rotating them to different parcels of pasture if they are eating too much or too little, and measures the height of the Mombaca grass planted here, which stands anywhere from knee- to waist-high. His goal: to intensify productivity and get the 2,500 heads to slaughter faster…

[Mr. Silva] works for Pecsa (which stands, in Portuguese, for Sustainable Cattle Ranching in the Amazon). A private company spun off from an environmental nongovernmental organization, the group seeks to intensify production on severely degraded pastures and turn them into efficient and sustainable operations. The group believes it’s possible to do so without losing a single hectare more of forest – even as demand for beef from Brazil continues to soar.”

— Saving the Amazon: How cattle ranchers can halt deforestation by Sara Miller Llana/World Wildlife Fund. March 4, 2020

The Benefits of Better Cattle Management:

Source: Terry et al (2020) Strategies to improve the efficiency of beef cattle production.

What Governments Should Do

Governments should offer farmers and ranchers plenty of technical guidance and financial assistance to help them intensify production and sustainably manage their land. That’s the carrot. The stick would be strict enforcement of environmental protection laws.

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Further Reading:

Beef cattle grazing more help than harm for endangered plants and animals by Sheila J. Barry/ UC Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources May 19, 2021

Broom, D.M. Land and Water Usage in Beef Production Systems. (2019), Animals, 9, 286. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9060286 

European settlement shifted methane emissions from wildlife to livestock by Amy Stewart/ASAS Communications American Society of Animal Science May 16, 2012 

Is Meat Bad for the Environment? CLEAR Center (Clarity and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research at UC Davis) October 23, 2019 

Saving the Amazon: How cattle ranchers can halt deforestation, by Sara Miller Llana/World Wildlife Fund March 4, 2020 

Smith, Stephen B et al. (2018) “Current situation and future prospects for global beef production: overview of special issue.” Asian-Australasian journal of animal sciences vol. 31,7: 927-932. doi: 10.5713/ajas.18.0405 

Stephanie A.Terry, John A.Basarab, Le LuoGuan, and Tim A.McAllister. (2020) Strategies to improve the efficiency of beef cattle production. Canadian Journal of Animal Science. 101(1): 1-19.  https://doi.org/10.1139/cjas-2020-0022  

The Amazon is turning into savannah – we have 5 years to save it, by Graham Lawton/ New Scientist December 8, 2021 

Why U.S. Beef Isn’t Causing Deforestation and Land Use Change Elsewhere, CLEAR Center (Clarity and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research at UC Davis) February 10, 2020