Read on Twitter
1/ Cautious thought stream, in lieu of coffee break chat (correct me if I'm wrong):
Welfare issues aside, meat from
&
is seen as 'bad' because it inefficiently uses cropland which could otherwise be growing food rather than feed
Welfare issues aside, meat from
&is seen as 'bad' because it inefficiently uses cropland which could otherwise be growing food rather than feed
2/ For instance, pigs and poultry account for the majority of soy cake consumption: https://www.foodsource.org.uk/building-blocks/soy-food-feed-and-land-use-change
3/ But (usually) the production of
&
meat also requires concentrates and cereals, and cattle/sheep are substantially less efficient at converting feed into meat compared to pigs/poultry.
&meat also requires concentrates and cereals, and cattle/sheep are substantially less efficient at converting feed into meat compared to pigs/poultry.
4/ According to this paper, the average British upland lamb system requires 3.9kg of concentrates per kg of meat. 2.7kg for upland suckler beef. This, on top of all the grass inputs. In contrast, 'only' 2.3kg of concentrate is needed per kg of poultry meat https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal/article/redefining-efficiency-of-feed-use-by-livestock/3493931B226C13A4FADA178B78B8F04E
5/ In other words, the average predominantly grass-based beef/lamb system (in which >90% of diet is grass) results in a net loss of food, compared to a counterfactual in which the concentrate inputs are instead diverted to poultry meat production.
6/ Of course, these diet assumptions represent (hopefully) the 'average' system, and some beef/lamb producers will use little/no concentrate inputs - and so will be net exporters of food. Also, beef/lamb is not nutritionally equivalent to chicken.
7/ Probably bad of me to reduce everything down to calories and protein. Many beef/lamb producers are creating/maintaining important wildlife habitat & nice landscapes, and many more should be supported to do so
8/ But I don't think food security is high up on the list of reasons to support these systems (maybe I'm straw-manning though)