attention veggie eaters

Otter, yes, I have been in fields during and after harvest,and yes, wildlife does get caught in machinery. But if the plants are going to feed livestock, it's doubly sad, see?

I wrote extensively on ag issues at a previous job. I know quite a bit about the ag in my area (dryland wheat, sunflowers, cow-calf operations.)
I see my choices as a leser of evils.
Please respect that I have NEVER lectured you to change your diet. I have respected your opinion when we disagreed, and often have agreed with you.

 

rock killer! ;P

 

OK, if all humans who consume livestock (raided for food) animals it would be a bit of an imbalance until those animals died. Many are so "modified" and I'm envisioning the sidewinder boars and most poultry bred for breast meat here, that the die off would be quick. Cattle could roam in packs, but turned out on prairie could conceiveably fill the buffalo niche, and possibly breed into "beefalo (ack)" to maintain the grasslands..if we'd move off it as ranches returned to wildland/ grazing permits expired.
To curb populations of wild animals, which are in imbalance because we killed off the predators to protect livestock, cull levels of hunting would be needed. That would actually, knowing human capacity to industrialize, become something of a business for a couple generations.

Do I believe a veggie world is the way to go? yeeeeaaaaah, WITHIN a grid, within population centers and within reason.
DO I believe the Massai or other harsh-environment people should go veg? NO. They have the right to survive.
I don't see a great reversal of the "progress" that got us here. We like our technology, see how we are using it right now?
I see that something, somehow will need to put human populations in balance as almost seven billion of us is really straining the ability of the biosystem to survive. Too many fish in the tank, so to speak.
For me, population reduction of humans is more important on a planetary level.
But I don't want corpse on my plate. That's me.
Enjoy your steaks, but let me grill my carrots in peace.
We can even sit at the same table.

What I do wish is that meat/flesh was seen as a treat and the production could balance out so that confined raising was unneccessary to maintain the supply. But demand increases, and so will production.
The Pollyanna in me wishes that communities had small operations for cattle/poultry and farmed fish to decrease the time between slaughter and consumption, decrease tha size of any one given "barn," and more people reveled in fresh tomatoes the way they revel in fresh fish.
For great amounts of the population, veggieheadedness will become ideal within a few generations, I hope.