Cowspiracy Video

[AmandaBrodhagen]

I recently came across a trailer for the “Cowspricy” documentary. It looks like bad news for the beef cattle industry. Watch it and let me know what you think.

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[grassfarmer]

OK I'll bite - it's a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. A lot of inaccurate stuff but also a lot of truths. Can't deny that the dead zones in the gulf of Mexico etc are result of N. American agriculture and its primary activity of growing corn for feedlot cattle.
On the other hand they miss the point that properly managed grassland/pasture using cattle as tools can be of huge benefit to the planet.

If nothing else they highlight a debate that we should be having in agriculture about systems.

[kato]

IMHO, it's only been a matter of time before this bag of cats got opened. To tell you the truth, even though we've been in the cattle business for many years, it still bothers me to see pictures of those massive feedlots, especially the one in the States that seem to go on forever. You can only imagine the smell, and I'm used to it. To say nothing of the mayhem when a bad storm hits.

For every mega feedlot you see, there are likely hundreds of small family run, and far better for the environment feedlots disappeared. From an environmental point of view, it's not the number of cattle that is the issue. It's the fact that they are all concentrated in one place. Things like manure are better being spread around. Pun intended.

We live in a province where the government just loves it's regulations. For instance, when you get to the size considered a "large animal unit", you enter into a whole new world of red tape. Example.. Hog producers need above ground storage for a full year of liquid manure, which has convinced most of the medium bordering on large operators to quit hogs completely. All types of large animal producers must file manure management plans, which include proving you have enough land to spread manure at the recommended rate. If you don't have enough, you need neighbours to sign on that you can use theirs. Then you need soil tests to prove the land isn't over fertilized. And you can only spread at certain times of the year. The list goes on and on.

I bet you won't see any of that in their film. They need to include some ideas for solutions. Something besides just bashing livestock. Something positive. People still need to eat.

[kato]

In addition... thinking about balancing a view... These people need to come to our part of the world, Manitoba, and see the result of the LOSS of livestock production.

Literally thousands of acres of wetland, pasture, and hayland has been worked up in the name of wall to wall grain farming. This is what slows runoff water. A cultivated field can't compare.

Grain is what vegetarians eat, right? Plant based diets, right? This excess drainage has led to us having one in 300 year floods every third year. There are farms here that haven't had a crop in years now, simply due to flood after flood.

Someone needs to make a documentary about how the move to plant based diets, and the cultivation of land that it requires has led to flooding of biblical proportions, the ruin and loss of future soil due to chronic flooding, and the billions of dollars of property damage.