How Raising Cattle Affects Our Environment

        There is only one way for grass-fed cattle to be a stable, sustainable practice. Do you know what that is? To decrease consumer demand of beef. Obviously, this is not an easy task. Beef consumption overall has decreased in recent years, but the production of grass-fed beef has boomed. So what are our options for a sustainable beef production industry in America if people still crave it?

        There are a few options, but whether or not they are truly feasible is the question. In an article from the Huffington Post, two Harvard researchers discovered possible ways to implement more ethical cattle raising practices. Many cows in the beef industry are raised in mass numbers, fed grain and treated in tight, overpopulated areas. These practices limit a cow’s ability to live instinctively.

        To create the option of more ethical treatment of cows, America would need a whole heck of a lot more land. McDonald’s has already cut down enormous chunks of the rainforest for years to create land for cows, greatly affecting entire ecosystems and the environment. We should not be destroying natural land to create mass production of unnaturally raised cattle. But the options we do have for more land in America unfortunately experience cold, dry seasons when grass does not grow. This is obviously a problem.

        But, it is not the only problem. Grass-fed cows also grow at a much slower rate than grain-fed cows, making the sustainable practice unable to keep up with the consumer demand of beef. Grass-fed cows grow to nearly one third of the size of grain-fed cows in the same amount of time. So, if we were to completely switch to raising cows on open grassland, we would need to increase the amount of cows by 30 percent. Thirty percent!!! That is around 27 million more cattle being slaughtered each year. This is not what we want.

        So is there a way to keep cows alive and growing in the harsher weather conditions in areas of land available to raise cattle? Well, there is, but it costs even more money. If grass is not growing during certain seasons, other options like hay and alfalfa would need to be stocked for those times of the year. However, these food options still do not “beef up” cows as quickly or effectively as grain.

        Even if we were able to find enough land to produce even more cattle, there is another issue. Feeding cows grass is the most natural way to produce beef, however, many people do not know that for cows to digest natural grasses, it must first ferment in their stomachs. This produces methane gases that are released into the air, greatly affecting the environment. When cows were first raised in much smaller quantities, years ago, this was not a problem. But the increased consumer demand in beef products has made these methane gases a much bigger problem. And if we were to increase the amount of cows even more, even more methane emissions would be released.

        So, really, what is our only and best option for raising natural, grass-fed beef to be sustainable? Stop putting meat on your dinner table so often. The only way to keep our environment stable relating to beef production is to decrease consumer demand. How do we do that? Well, it is not easy, but it is possible. The next time you buy beef from the grocery store, consider how it is affecting our environment – and – how those cows were raised.