Thinking about agriculture. The pressure to industrialize.

Interesting article came up in my Facebook news feed.

Destructive farming is the issue — not whether you eat meat or vegetables.

I reposted article and then I also put what's below in the comments to my own repost.

Besides the farming techniques talked about in article, I think a lot of the problem is just the sheer volume of meat and food we consume. Even meat is okay in moderation, but depends on how it's done. Humane treatment of animals is an issue tho.

As for the environment, overpopulation needs to be discussed. Also over consumption. So much of our food is wasted. There is a lot of pressure for big scale industrial agriculture. Grain fed feedlots and so forth. With less pressure for low price and volume of production, smaller, family style agriculture can work. In USA, we tend to pay too much for housing and medical care while not enough for food as a percent of household budget. Good food does require something from us.

As for meat, things like cattle can help the soil if handled properly. In marginal and dry areas, cow hoofs can till the soils while cow pies add humus. In moderation, meat is okay, but there is too much pressure to create volume for mass consumption. The pressure leading to industrialization.