[reportingsjr]

> plus, if your beef is grass fed for its whole life like ours, it's carbon neutral, as all the carbon that goes into the animal came from the atmosphere

This totally ignores the land use issue. Cattle absolutely decimate natural areas. e.g. significant areas of the midwest/great plain that were prairie with deep roots to store carbon are now pasture. Pasture grass has comparatively shallow roots and limited ability to store carbon.

[mech987987]

Hasn't the midwest host large herds of grazing buffalo for millenia? I think the last I read about this stuff, most cattle farmers want their grass to still be the old school deep-rooted stuff, if other grasses take over it is a symptom of overgrazing.

[padjo]

> Hasn't the midwest host large herds of grazing buffalo for millenia?

Only because humans killed all the megafauna at the end of the last ice age.

The question now is if populating it with millions of cows for us to eat is the right thing to do.

[jmilloy]

I think this is generally false. Cloven hooved animals regenerate prairie and topsoil if grazed responsibly.

[clord]

Two things:

- Grazers improve the capacity of grass to carbon capture

- Some land is ONLY able to grow grass. The alternative is desertification, and so livestock is the only option to produce food. edit: unless you bring in fossil fertilizers.

[jononomo]

no, cattle grazing on land serves to regenerate the land.