Quote:
Originally Posted by ProggyMan
Actually animal farming can be a key part of an ecosystem. What makes animal farming so inefficient is the globalized industry it has become.
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Yes, ProggyMan, animal manure can be a good fertilizer, although green manures (in which leguminous plant crops are used to create fertilizer) also work.
The industrialization of animal agriculture, in which large numbers of animals are confined, does result in major problems--I agree with you. For example, it results in massive quantities of fertilizer difficult to spread on fields...and actually spreading the fertilizer in large quantities is harmful to the environment.
Evidence: the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Iowa and other ag states along the Mississippi River create fertilizer runoff that not only frequently kills fish, but also leads to algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico, followed by decay, oxygen consumption, and vast underwater areas devoid of life.
While it can be argued that livestock animals are a good source of manure, the irony is that much of the cropland on which manure is spread is being used to produce corn and soybeans to feed...the livestock. Much of the protein and energy in the crops is then burned up by the livestock animals. Only a fraction of the original number of calories available in the plants ends up as calories in the flesh consumed by people. Very little of the cropland around me in Iowa is used to grow plants for direct human consumption. The pollution Iowa produces is due primarily to the livestock (and ethanol) industries. Since I live with this all around me, it is hard to forget.