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Originally Posted by Suave
Cattle, chickens, et cetera, do not naturally exist in the numbers or densities that they currently do, nor over the vast areas they now inhabit. We have artificially inflated their numbers and range by protecting them when they breed, until we decide to slaughter them. If we all stopped eating domesticated meat, their numbers would drop drastically as they were predated upon, struck with disease, and so forth, and our use of vegetation as our sole source of nutrients would reduce each person's biological footprint substantially.
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I think you meant to say if we stopped raising domesticated animals their numbers would drop back to equilibrium. If we just stopped eating them, their numbers would rise as we have erradicated a great deal of the natural predators that prey upon the animals we have domesticated. But, with that I think you missed the point of my argument.
Over population, and the reduction in usable space is a completely different issue as to the mistreatment of animals and the eating of animals for food. If you are worried about a biological footprint, STOP DRIVING. When you said that each person's footprint would be reduced
substancially by having a vegitarian diet, I know you are misguided. The resources that are consumed in the name of manufacturing cars and supplying them with energy surpasess the energy and space required to feed a human population meat by orders of magnitude.
If you are going to continue with the biological footprint argument, what about factoring in the manufacturing costs of all the vitamins and food suppliments that many vegitarians eat in order to replace what they are not getting from a diet that contains meat. Or the shear energy requirement in shipping the food that we eat around the world, country or even the city you live in. The manufacturing costs of the clothes you are wearing while you read this are probably bigger than the energy required in raising the meat I'm going to eat all month.
It is true that it takes more space to raise an animal than it is to get an equivalent amount of energy from grains, vegitables and fruits. But there are a lot of things that one could give up that would decrease their footprint more than cutting animal from their diet.
And I LOVE the taste!!!!!