Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also a total absence of data. Had the author consulted the literature, he'd know that the environmental credentials of grass-fed beef are extremely suspect; some studies suggest that the carbon footprint is actually greater than intensive feedlot beef and the land use is absolutely vast. He'd know that only a handful of animal sources of protein have equivalent CO2 emissions to plant sources - intensively rea…
>the land use is absolutely vast Not quibbling with the broader point, but... is this actually a problem? When I see center-pivot irrigation circles laid out on a square grid, wasting 20% of the land, I don't get the impression we're short of the stuff.
It could become highly significant due to the growing global population and increasing meat consumption in the developing world. Global meat consumption has quadrupled in the last 50 years; continued growth at that rate is entirely plausible and entirely unsustainable.