Questions for those who can answer them:
1.) What is the difference between “Milk” and “dairy herd” with regards to pollution and land use? Honest question.
2.) I’ve always wondered, but didn’t want to get flamed for asking: What if you have pet chickens? I don’t eat them, they live a great chicken life, but I end up with a ton of eggs that I give to people I know. Obviously those eggs are eaten. Does this count as some kind of horrible animal cruelty?
Chickens are wonderful pets. They eat bugs and poop fertilizer. As a farmer I can tell you your land can sustain chickens, just like it can sustain hundreds of other native birds.
I’m guessing these stats are focusing on a cow farm that cut down a forest versus a cow farm that exists on a prairie. But like the carbon cycle on most land can handle a certain amount of cows.
I just really hate how these all demonize small scale farmers. Having a couple dozen chickens is much different than having 500,000 chickens. Agricultures byproducts and environmental impacts range widely.
If I buy half a cow from my neighbor, it doesn’t travel, it gets processed locally. The ecological foot print is different than me getting a cow from Brazil.
Having a couple dozen chickens is much different than having 500,000 chickens.
I’ve felt that but I haven’t really put it into words. My flock of modern dinosaurs gets to run around and eat all the ticks while standing in the sun and digging in the dirt. I’ve never had chickens before these, and the thing that surprised me is that they aren’t mindless balls of feathers. They have personalities. They communicate. They make lots of dinosaur noises too.
I like chickens more than people. They are wonderful little beings. They make me so incredibly happy as they run around and peck at each other.
Nature sequesters carbon. If you are farming within the natural limits of your land you shouldn’t be generating much carbon at all.
All these people have a hard time imagining an old timey farming. Pre Industrial Revolution. There are plenty of natural farms around to this day. Tons of farmers, honoring traditional farming practices.
NomNom