From: Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Date: Tue Jun 12 2001 - 04:57:08 MDT
At 02:26 AM 6/12/01 -0700, you wrote:
>If the cattle are not fed on cultivated land then what are they
>fed on? The vast majority of cattle raised for meat and flesh
>in the US are raised in factory farms and can't exactly keep the
>lawn mowed.
Many are raised on grazing land that is not suitable for normal crops, and
fattened for a month or two in the "factories". They eat grass and plants
that are not planted, but whatever happens to grow.
It's entirely possible that those month(s) in the fattening pens could
consume more feed than the grazing provides. Anyone got numbers?
I am not even sure if you can raise "lean beef" in a holding pen, anyway.
Today's "best" meat would be looked at as third rate by folks from 100
years back - USDA "prime" used to mean richly marbled with fat that would
give many of us a queasy feeling to think about eating it. Can you get lean
meat without allowing the cattle to roam about freely?
>It depends on the amount of cattle fed how many people would
>need to go more or less vegetarian to not have cultivatable land
>feeding cattle rather than people. Today, the percentage of
>cultivatable land feeding cattle is high from what I've heard
>claimed. I can't claim to have precise numbers though.
>
>- samantha
Around here, you see cattle on hilly ground, stony ground (lots of gravel
and rocks in the soil here), and in places where it's inconvenient to plow
and plant. The fields so used could be planted by advanced methods, I am
sure, if you are willing to redefine "arable land".
Chuck Kuecker
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