[chrisco255]

More than 90% of a beef cow's body weight comes from pasture land grass and hay.

When's the last time the Midwestern plains area of the United States was forest? Before the beef industry, 50-100 million bison roamed the plains. It turns out that ruminants like bison and cows are essential components of a grassland ecosystem.

[markstos]

But killing them for food is not.

[chrisco255]

Yes it is. They are prey animals and they literally evolved to be prey. Incidentally we also killed off most of the major predators around the world so there are few wolves, saber tooth cats, etc to keep population numbers controlled.