By Paul Homewood
We must end our dependence on food.
Why doesn’t anyone take this chestnut seriously?
Perhaps before deceiving himself next time, he might want to check out what the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has to say on the matter:
Roughly 60 PERFORMANCE of the world’s grasslands (approximately 2.2 million km2), less than half of the world’s usable surface is covered by the grazing system. Distributed among arid, semi-arid and sub-humid, humid, temperate and tropical highlands, the region is home to about 360 million livestock (half of which live in the humid savannahs). ), and more than 600 million sheep and goats, mainly in arid regions. The distribution of livestock across different ecoregions is provided in Appendix Table 2.
Grazing systems provide about 9% of the world’s beef production and about 30% of the world’s lamb and goat meat production. For about 100 million people in arid regions, and possibly a similar number in other regions, grazing is the only viable source of livelihood.
Grazing can be envisioned as beautiful cows on the lush grasslands of northwest Europe or New Zealand-pets in harmony with nature. Indeed, livestock production can improve soil and vegetation cover as well as plant and animal biodiversity, as described in this chapter’s case studies of very different conditions in Kenya, western United States and Guinea. By removing biomass, which can fuel wildfires, by controlling shrub growth, and by dispersing seeds through their hooves and droppings, herbivores can improved plant species composition. In addition, trampling can stimulate tillering, improve seed germination, and break down the hard crust of the soil.
However, many people associate grazing with overgrazing, land degradation and deforestation. To them, cattle ranching in the arid regions of the tropics conjured images of dust clouds, faded cow skeletons, and an advancing desert. The two most cited sources are the Global Assessment of Land Degradation (Oldeman et al., 1991), which estimates that 680 million hectares of livestock land has been degraded since 1945, and Dregne et al., ( 1991) argues that 73% of the world’s 4.5 billion hectares of grazing land is moderately or severely degraded. In wet areas, ranching has been associated with encroachment on farms and deforestation of tropical rainforests and competition with wildlife.
Prolonged heavy grazing certainly contributed to the disappearance of edible species and the subsequent domination of other less palatable herbaceous plants or shrubs. Such loss of vegetation and consequent animal biodiversity may require a long regeneration cycle (30 years in savannas, 100 years in tropical forests). Overgrazing also causes soil compaction and erosion, reduces soil fertility and water infiltration, and reduces organic matter content and water storage capacity. On the other hand, complete absence of grazing also reduces biodiversity because the thick canopy of shrubs and trees that grow blocks out light and moisture, resulting in overprotected, easily accessible plant communities. affected by natural disasters.
The environmental challenge is therefore to identify the policies, institutions and technologies that will enhance the positive impacts and mitigate the negative impacts of grazing. Environmental challenges, problems and options vary considerably according to climate and soil capabilities. Thus, livestock-environment interactions are described separately for arid, semi-arid and subhumid grazing systems, humid rainforests, and tropical and temperate highlands, respectively. As we will see, that distinction is especially important for arid ecosystems. As aridity increases, so does rainfall, to the extent that the cycle of precipitation becomes the most important factor affecting the state of the natural resource base. The classical concepts of vegetative succession and extreme vegetation do not apply in such environments and new concepts are needed.
https://www.fao.org/3/X5303E/x5303e05.htm
Forget climate change and all the other stuff Monbiot rambling about. His only real concern, as he made it clear at the end of his speech, was that farming took up too much land, which he thought should be left fallow.
And he’s clearly happy to convict billions of people to starve to do just that.
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