If you want to save the world, veganism is not an option
If you have not read my resonant post " Why it is really impossible to be a vegetarian," please do this before reading this post.
Over the past few years, veganism has gained popularity in the UK - presumably half a million people in 2016 and more than 3.5 million - 5% of our population - are now vegans. Documentary films such as Cowspiracy and What the Health have drawn attention to the meat and dairy industries, exposing the effects on animal health, humans and the environment in general.
Instead of being tempted by calls to eat more products made from industrially grown soybeans, corn, and grains, we should encourage sustainable forms of meat and dairy products based on traditional rotation systems, permanent pastures and pasture conservation. We must at least question the ethics of increasing demand for crops that require large amounts of fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and herbicides, while also demonstrating sustainable forms of animal husbandry that can restore soil and biodiversity, as well as capture carbon.
In 2000, my husband and I transferred our 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) farm in West Sussex to vast pastures using free-roaming herds of old English long-horned cattle, Tamworth pigs, Pony Exmoor, etc., as part of a re-raving project. For 17 years, we struggled to make our traditional arable and dairy business profitable, but on heavy low clay, we could never compete with farms on lighter soils. This decision turned our fate around. Now eco-tourism, rental of former agricultural buildings, as well as 75 tons per year of organic pasture meat contribute to a profitable business. And since animals live on the street all year round and they have a lot of food, they do not need additional food and rarely need to visit a veterinarian.
Animals live in herds and walk wherever they wish. They rest where they like (they “despise” the open sheds left for them as a shelter) and eat what they like. Cattle and deer graze among wildflowers and meadows, but they also roam among shrubs and trees. Pigs take root in rhizomes and even dive for swans into ponds. The way they graze stimulates vegetation in different ways, which in turn creates opportunities for other species, including small mammals and birds.
It is important to note that since we do not use avermectins (anthelminthic substances that cattle are usually fed in intensive systems) or antibiotics, their manure serves as food for earthworms, bacteria, fungi and invertebrates such as dung beetles. This is a vital process of restoring the ecosystem, returning nutrients and structure to the soil. Soil loss is one of the greatest disasters the world is facing today. The 2015 United Nations Food and Agriculture Report says that globally, 25 to 40 billion tons of topsoil is lost annually due to erosion, mainly due to plowing and intensive sowing.
In the UK, topsoil depletion is so great that in 2014, Farmers Weekly magazine announced that we could only have 100 crops left . Leaving arable land under steam and returning it to pasture for a certain period - as farmers used to do before artificial fertilizers and mechanization made continuous cultivation possible - is the only way to reverse this process, stop erosion and restore soil, according to UN Food and agricultural organization. Cattle grazing not only provides farmers with income, but animal manure, urine, and even the method of cattle grazing speed up soil restoration. The key must be organic and keep cattle low to prevent overgrazing.
Twenty years ago, our soils on the farm - severely degraded after decades of plowing and chemical emissions - were almost biologically dead. We now have fruiting mushrooms and orchids appearing on our former arable fields: a sign that underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi are spreading. We have 19 types of earthworms - the key species responsible for aeration, rotation, fertilizing, moistening and even detoxifying the soil. We found 23 species of dung beetles in one cow, one of which - the purple beetle - was not seen in Sussex for 50 years. Birds that feed on insects attracted by this nutrient manure take off. Rooting pigs provides an opportunity for the germination of local flora and shrubs, including willow, and this has led to the emergence of the largest colony of purple emperors in Britain, one of our rarest species of butterflies that lays eggs on willow leaves.
This natural grazing system not only helps the environment in terms of soil restoration, biodiversity, pollination of insects, water quality and mitigating the effects of floods, but also guarantees a healthy life for animals, and they, in turn, produce meat that is good for us. Unlike meats with grains and prepared grains from intensive systems, pasture meats are rich in beta-carotene, calcium, selenium, magnesium and potassium, as well as vitamins E and B, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) - a powerful anti-carcinogen. It also contains a large amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which is vital for the development of the human brain, but which is very difficult for vegans to obtain.
Much has been done regarding livestock methane emissions , but they are lower in biodiversity pasture systems that include wild plants such as angelica, common fumorium, shepherd’s bag and bird trefoil because they contain fumaric acid - a compound that when added in the diet of lambs at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen reduced methane emissions by 70% .
In the vegan equation, by contrast, the cost of carbon plowing is rarely taken into account. Since the industrial revolution, according to a 2017 report in the scientific journal Nature, up to 70% of the carbon in our cultivated soils has been lost to the atmosphere.
Thus, there is a huge responsibility: if you do not produce your vegan products specifically from organic systems “without plowing”, you are actively involved in the destruction of soil biota, promoting a system that deprives other species, including small mammals, birds and reptiles, of conditions life and a significant contribution to climate change.
Our ecology has developed along with large herbivores - with free-roaming herds of bison (ancestors of cows), tarpan (original horse), elk, bear, bison, red deer, roe deer, wild boar and millions of beavers. These are species whose interactions with the environment support and contribute to life. The use of herbivores as part of the agricultural cycle can be of great importance to ensure the sustainability of agriculture.
There is no doubt that we should all eat much less meat, and we urge an end to the high-carbon, unethical, intensive forms of meat production on cereals that deserve praise. But if you, as a vegetarian, care about the environment, animal welfare and your own health, then you can no longer pretend that all this is solved simply by rejecting meat and dairy products. It may seem counterintuitive that adding a rare organic pasture steak to your diet might be the right way to circle.
Over the past few years, veganism has gained popularity in the UK - presumably half a million people in 2016 and more than 3.5 million - 5% of our population - are now vegans. Documentary films such as Cowspiracy and What the Health have drawn attention to the meat and dairy industries, exposing the effects on animal health, humans and the environment in general.
Instead of being tempted by calls to eat more products made from industrially grown soybeans, corn, and grains, we should encourage sustainable forms of meat and dairy products based on traditional rotation systems, permanent pastures and pasture conservation. We must at least question the ethics of increasing demand for crops that require large amounts of fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and herbicides, while also demonstrating sustainable forms of animal husbandry that can restore soil and biodiversity, as well as capture carbon.
In 2000, my husband and I transferred our 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) farm in West Sussex to vast pastures using free-roaming herds of old English long-horned cattle, Tamworth pigs, Pony Exmoor, etc., as part of a re-raving project. For 17 years, we struggled to make our traditional arable and dairy business profitable, but on heavy low clay, we could never compete with farms on lighter soils. This decision turned our fate around. Now eco-tourism, rental of former agricultural buildings, as well as 75 tons per year of organic pasture meat contribute to a profitable business. And since animals live on the street all year round and they have a lot of food, they do not need additional food and rarely need to visit a veterinarian.
Animals live in herds and walk wherever they wish. They rest where they like (they “despise” the open sheds left for them as a shelter) and eat what they like. Cattle and deer graze among wildflowers and meadows, but they also roam among shrubs and trees. Pigs take root in rhizomes and even dive for swans into ponds. The way they graze stimulates vegetation in different ways, which in turn creates opportunities for other species, including small mammals and birds.
It is important to note that since we do not use avermectins (anthelminthic substances that cattle are usually fed in intensive systems) or antibiotics, their manure serves as food for earthworms, bacteria, fungi and invertebrates such as dung beetles. This is a vital process of restoring the ecosystem, returning nutrients and structure to the soil. Soil loss is one of the greatest disasters the world is facing today. The 2015 United Nations Food and Agriculture Report says that globally, 25 to 40 billion tons of topsoil is lost annually due to erosion, mainly due to plowing and intensive sowing.
In the UK, topsoil depletion is so great that in 2014, Farmers Weekly magazine announced that we could only have 100 crops left . Leaving arable land under steam and returning it to pasture for a certain period - as farmers used to do before artificial fertilizers and mechanization made continuous cultivation possible - is the only way to reverse this process, stop erosion and restore soil, according to UN Food and agricultural organization. Cattle grazing not only provides farmers with income, but animal manure, urine, and even the method of cattle grazing speed up soil restoration. The key must be organic and keep cattle low to prevent overgrazing.
Twenty years ago, our soils on the farm - severely degraded after decades of plowing and chemical emissions - were almost biologically dead. We now have fruiting mushrooms and orchids appearing on our former arable fields: a sign that underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi are spreading. We have 19 types of earthworms - the key species responsible for aeration, rotation, fertilizing, moistening and even detoxifying the soil. We found 23 species of dung beetles in one cow, one of which - the purple beetle - was not seen in Sussex for 50 years. Birds that feed on insects attracted by this nutrient manure take off. Rooting pigs provides an opportunity for the germination of local flora and shrubs, including willow, and this has led to the emergence of the largest colony of purple emperors in Britain, one of our rarest species of butterflies that lays eggs on willow leaves.
This natural grazing system not only helps the environment in terms of soil restoration, biodiversity, pollination of insects, water quality and mitigating the effects of floods, but also guarantees a healthy life for animals, and they, in turn, produce meat that is good for us. Unlike meats with grains and prepared grains from intensive systems, pasture meats are rich in beta-carotene, calcium, selenium, magnesium and potassium, as well as vitamins E and B, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) - a powerful anti-carcinogen. It also contains a large amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which is vital for the development of the human brain, but which is very difficult for vegans to obtain.
Much has been done regarding livestock methane emissions , but they are lower in biodiversity pasture systems that include wild plants such as angelica, common fumorium, shepherd’s bag and bird trefoil because they contain fumaric acid - a compound that when added in the diet of lambs at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen reduced methane emissions by 70% .
In the vegan equation, by contrast, the cost of carbon plowing is rarely taken into account. Since the industrial revolution, according to a 2017 report in the scientific journal Nature, up to 70% of the carbon in our cultivated soils has been lost to the atmosphere.
Thus, there is a huge responsibility: if you do not produce your vegan products specifically from organic systems “without plowing”, you are actively involved in the destruction of soil biota, promoting a system that deprives other species, including small mammals, birds and reptiles, of conditions life and a significant contribution to climate change.
Our ecology has developed along with large herbivores - with free-roaming herds of bison (ancestors of cows), tarpan (original horse), elk, bear, bison, red deer, roe deer, wild boar and millions of beavers. These are species whose interactions with the environment support and contribute to life. The use of herbivores as part of the agricultural cycle can be of great importance to ensure the sustainability of agriculture.
There is no doubt that we should all eat much less meat, and we urge an end to the high-carbon, unethical, intensive forms of meat production on cereals that deserve praise. But if you, as a vegetarian, care about the environment, animal welfare and your own health, then you can no longer pretend that all this is solved simply by rejecting meat and dairy products. It may seem counterintuitive that adding a rare organic pasture steak to your diet might be the right way to circle.
All Articles