frostygunnarskrtskrt t1_isdvqoh wrote on October 15, 2022 at 5:38 AM

Reply to comment by Pharmalucid in Half a cow by wyluda

The reason beef farming never be sustainable is because the calories it takes to raise a cow to adulthood vs the calories that come off said cow. Dairy farming has a chance because cows will continue to produce milk and the milk can be made into many things.

I eat meat and am not the preacher of this philosophy but it’s a very interesting and partly why eastern cultures tend to be vegetarian.

britjh22 t1_isft1cz wrote on October 15, 2022 at 5:27 PM

While that can be a useful way to think about it, calories can come in more and less useful (to humans) forms. If livestock is grazing on things that are not useful to humans as a food source, it is a way to convert non useful calories to useful calories. It can also be thought of as a calorie store, like how cheese can be a longer lasting storage of milk calories.