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Sustainability
The desert is closer than you think: even Italy is at risk of desertification!
The top 5 environmental advantages of grass-fed beef (no grains):
- Cattle on pastures help maintain attractive scenery.
- Cattle raised with grass promote more sustainable agriculture.
- Raising animals on pastures results in not only more animals but more healthy animals (not only cows).
- Farms that raise animals on pastures promote cleaner water.
- Grazing impedes soil erosion
If correctly managed, pasture raised animals, rather than factory farming, produces distinct environmental benefits. To begin with, a diet of grass requires less fossil fuel than a diet of dried grains and soy. With pastures, animals produce and spread their own fertilizer. The manure improves the quality of the grass, which increases the growth rate of the animals. It's a closed sustainable system. The soil is covered with green all year round and is therefore very efficient in collecting solar energy and maintaining moisture and top soil. Animal grazing removes carbon dioxide from the air more efficiently than other use of the land, including forests and pastures without animals, and helps reduce global warming. |
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Cows on pastures can take a sterile (but grassy) field and transform it into fertile land.
How? Almost everything that concerns their grazing is advantageous. Even just eating grass helps more grass grow. A pasture raised cow eats grass. -> The grass enters the first chamber of its stomach and then is regurgitated. The seeds are separated from the grass. -> The seeds are scattered about or are planted directly in the soil (the cow's hooves help plant the seeds by stomping them into the soil).
Grass-fed animals + Pastures (without grains) = Sustainable Agriculture and More Attractive Countryside
Lets look at the United States for example where statistics are easy to obtain: 60% of all corn and 50% of all cereals cultivated in the United States are for animal food. How many cornfields in Italy are destined to produce animal feed? Even with numbers like these, in the United States there are at least 20 types of delicious corn for human consumption. How many are there in Italy? One? The next time you drive along a suburban or rural road, think about how much more attractive the scenery would be if all the corn fields weren't needed to feed animals. Rather than see grains in the summer and dirt or mud in the winter, you'd see fields of green grass all year.
The point
A lot of animals depend on pastures to live. The amount of pastures are decreasing for many reasons that we cannot control. Nonetheless cultivating grains to feed animals is a controllable reason and an irresponsible one. How can you help? If you want to do just one thing: eat only fresh, tasty meat from animals raised exclusively with grass. One person cannot
make a difference, but if more and more consumers make this choice,
the meat industry on a global level will be forced to explore
the alternative of organic meat from pasture-raised animals.
continue to the next page to read about:
Reversing Desertification with Animals;
Italy: 51,8% is Considered at Risk of Desertification
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