name: Greenjeans

comments:

Thanks for your comment 'you must be kidding'

What you seem to not understand is that most 'grain' fed in animal production is either grain that is not high enough quality for human consumption, because of a variety of reasons, or is a by-product of human use of high quality grain such as corn gluten, distiller's grain, brewer's grain, wheat middlings, corn wheat and barley screenings, low grade potatoes etc, etc, etc. There are many more minor ingredients that result in industrial food production, such as apple pulp, beet pulp, broken cookies, stale bread, cannerie residue, choclate bars, candy, cocao bean shells... the list goes on and on. These ingredients would end up in a landfill if it wasn't for animal production, because fickle consumers need perfectly round cookies! These low quality ingredients are used especially in the beef industry, because ruminants are more well suited to convert these products, while monogastrics aren't.

The only joke is that people are so uneducated about where their food comes from and how it is produced, that they cannot even formulate a valid argument as to why they are or aren't a vegan.

If you would like to do some math, find out how many acres of land on earth are fit to produce food for human consumption (I'll guess 20 percent of arable land), then figure out if you can grow enough soya, corn and rice to feed us all.

As far as irrigation goes, most crops for human consumption are irrigated, depending on geography, and proportionately speaking, few crops for animal consumption are.

Looking at the world through rose colored glasses is nice, but someone has to be practical.

Greenjeans

name: You must be kidding

comments:

"fertiliser, herbicides, and irrigation are required"

And none of these are required to grow the grain fed to the majority of animals that are raised for human consumption? With more corn and soy grown for animals than for humans...well, do the math and you'll see that this entire website belongs on the "jokes" page.

name: Big-Picture

comments:

Dear Mr. Greenjeans,

In response to your comment: "The only natural, renewable, environementaly friendly fertiliser is (ha ha): manure." Have you heard about veganics? Check the web site below. Organic farming with NO animal doo-doo.

http://www.friendsofanimals.org/actionline/fall-2004/veganics.html

Here's some info pasted from the web site:

"There’s nothing new about embracing biodiversity and using decomposing plant matter to grow plants. It’s the very basis of natural growth. The best example is the forest, whose fertility comes from the accumulation of plants on the surface, without anyone working the soil and without artificial additions of animal manure.

"Early farmers acknowledged this. There was a time when nearly all farming was done without animal manure or animal derivatives. As Ron Khosla points out, “the Romans and the Chinese used ‘green manures.’” In practical terms, explains Khosla, farmers did not keep animals in high concentrations; nor did they have our substantial ability with fossil-fuels to transport manure from place to place. “Farmers in New York’s Hudson Valley in the 1800’s knew and wrote of the problems with depending on animal manures for vegetable nutrient needs,” says Khosla. To avoid these problems they learned how to farm using green manures and crop rotations.

"Conversely, if modern farmers would learn to avoid using animals or animal derivatives to grow crops, we could also eliminate the needless use of fossil-fuels consumed during the transport of manure from place to place. Finally, without animals, it is not necessary to maintain vast areas of pasture, so we could return this land to its natural state: forests. Not only would we stop using animals for our purposes — they’d also get precious habitat back."

Also, you might be interested to know that George Washington recycled the human waste from the outhouses to fertilize some of the gardens at Mount Vernon. As you've acknowledged, we've got billions of human beings on this planet; as I'm sure you know, we are making quite a bit of waste that could be used to fertilize organic fruits and vegetables, if you'd rather use manure instead of the veganic methods.

Best wishes,
Ms. Big Picture