this is based on the poore-nemecek study and should not be regarded as “true”. it’s “true if they methodology reflects reality” but it does not.

Can you expand on that or at least link me to the people smarter than me?

I can just tell you: they did some looking at each production process and the inputs and outputs, then extrapolated it out to global scale.

The problem is that inputs and outputs vary wildly from place to place, that’s why some places are all corn and beans and others are cattle and yet others are something else. Given those differences are because of the economic inputs varying as opposed to the environmental inputs and outputs varying.

You can’t just go around to all the beef producers in the county and figure out how their operation works then multiply it by however much to fit the world scale because the rest of the world might be doing it wildly differently.

Although while I see the criticism of their methodology I think it means things are actually way worse, not better in terms of the environmental impact of beef.

The original paper says that they weighted each measure to the country's national production and then weighted those by the country's share of global production. They didn't just average each result they got for beef with no regard for location.