[simple-thoughts]

An “effective environmentalism” might be a good meme to attempt a rebrand of nuclear, microwaves, and factory farming. But there’s nothing about how to prevent effective environmentalism from becoming performative just like how the author notes environmentalism has.

[AstralStorm]

Factory farming does not get to be put in there, eating animals is very expensive ecologically. Only agriculture.

[jrajav]

I don't think the author, or anyone who eats meat (and is intellectually honest and invested in environmental impact), is trying to argue that it's not expensive. But if you've already made the ethical choice that you still want to eat meat, it's worthwhile to study what methods for producing it are less impactful and more sustainable.

[simple-thoughts]

Factory farming animals is specifically mentioned in the article as causing less environmental damage than organic or cage free methods. Whether true or not doesn’t prevent effective environmentalism from becoming as performative as environmentalism.

[waffle_ss]

It's specifically very wrong. It links to this study for that claim:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6cd5

Which only looks at greenhouse gas emissions (and only then compares grass feeding to grain feeding), and does NOT consider the effects to local groundwater, surface water, or air quality from CAFOs.

Here's a CDC resource that goes into depth about the swathe of negative effects on local resources CAFOs create: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh...

Besides things like frequent manure spills that pollute surface and groundwater, children living near these CAFOs have elevated rates of asthma.

The piece is very focused on greenhouse gases and the benefits of "economies of scale" but doesn't say a peep about the meltdown of our consolidated food supply when the pandemic subjected it to supply shocks.

[Out_of_Characte]

How did the pandemic melt down our consolidated food supply?

AFAIK only food delivery to restaurants was slightly affected

[kurupt213]

It makes sense that it is true since it’s the most cost effective way - required resources are generally tied directly to cost

[kurupt213]

It’s still a necessity so it needs to be included