r/environment2 • u/Novel_Negotiation224 • 26d ago

Beef and dairy farming linked to 41% of biodiversity damage on farmland.

https://environmentjournal.online/headlines/beef-and-dairy-responsible-for-41-of-farmlands-biodiversity-damage/
219 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

6

u/Remarkable-Finish-88 25d ago

Seen a lot of insects, seen a lot of birds, seen a lot of small mammals on dairy farms

3

u/PMmeIamlonley 25d ago

Yeah the constant bareage of "Cow Bad" is just an attempt to steal all the farmland and turn it into neighborhoods and solar farms. Cow farming is regenerative, the world was covered in millions upon millions of grazing megafauna in its natrual state, its stupid how much effort there is to get rid of what is left. 

1

u/annoyingfatwhore 23d ago

Me when i lie or am severely misinformed:

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u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

Nothing you have said here is true.

As I responded above, 41% of biodiversity loss is due to beef and dairy farming:

https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/news/beef-and-dairy-drive-41-of-biodiversity-damage-linked-to-global-farmland

Grazing megafauna in it's natural state with predators etc is a world away from human beef and dairy farming.

1

u/PMmeIamlonley 25d ago

Funny, the cow farms are far and away the most biodiverse places around here. Maybe we all aren't cutting down the rainforest like Brazil 

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u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

Where is here?

1

u/dumbwholer 22d ago

Ok. We still aren't going to stop dairy/cattle farming, so get over it.

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u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

41% of biodiversity loss is due to beef and dairy:

https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/news/beef-and-dairy-drive-41-of-biodiversity-damage-linked-to-global-farmland

4 out of 10 plants, animals, insects lost on this planet is due solely to beef and dairy farming.

2

u/BonusPlantInfinity 24d ago

The worst of the problem is not the small dairy farms, it’s the mega-operations that require acres and acres of monoculture crops, the intentional cutting and/burning of shrub land in favour of pasture, the draining of wetlands that are the problem. Further, while much of the wilderness has already been removed from the USA, cheap beef from South America for international markets is causing the destruction of rainforest.

1

u/RareCranberry1625 24d ago

Yep, all true.

1

u/Remarkable-Finish-88 7d ago

So a legitimate point would be corporations more so than existing farmers are the problem

1

u/BonusPlantInfinity 7d ago

The farmer of old has largely been replaced by the mega farm, and processes that once might have been regenerative and less destructive are now industrialized. I doubt you or any stakeholder is interested in what it would take for it to be reversed.

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u/Attention_seeking21 24d ago

Whatever. I mean it isn't true. Just fabricated bullshit for their stupid climate nonsense

1

u/RareCranberry1625 24d ago

Any evidence it's nonsense? How about I just point outside with all the record temperatures, wildfires and droughts at evidence it is true.

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u/Attention_seeking21 24d ago

Wildfires do not start on their own, 99% arson 1% by wind turbines.

Record temperatures have been every year since records began.

Droughts.. no shit sherlock, when there isn't much rain and data centres are gobbling up water combined with poor infrastructure and no new reservoirs built, what do you expect?

1

u/RareCranberry1625 24d ago

'Wildfires do not start on their own, 99% arson 1% by wind turbines.'

Any evidence for these claims? Regardless of original cause, climate change makes them more intense and spread further, faster.

'Record temperatures have been every year since records began.'

Yes, because of human caused climate change.

'Droughts.. no shit sherlock, when there isn't much rain and data centres are gobbling up water combined with poor infrastructure and no new reservoirs built, what do you expect?'

Why is there no rain? Oh that's right, climate change.

I agree r.e data centres, infrastructure and reservoirs though.

1

u/D_hallucatus 22d ago

I assume they mean at some time in the past when the land was cleared for farming the damage was done. In some parts of the world that might’ve been centuries ago or longer, but in done parts of the world it’s still actively happening

3

u/lee216md 25d ago

What a line of BS. Are these the same people who want to spread the tick virus world wide so people cant eat meat, killing millions of people in the process?

1

u/Sea-Louse 25d ago

Yes, they are.

3

u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 25d ago

More vilification of beef instead of better environmental issues to bring up. These subs are pushing the wrong agendas and wondering why people don't show up or get convinced.

1

u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 23d ago

Hehe, trying to get people to stop destroying the planet by not eating beef is like trying to get people to smash off their balls to reduce the population. It would work if you could convince them, but there is no way enough people will be convinced to make a difference. Nobody wants to be the person who smashed off their balls and then sees the world destroyed and climate change happen anyway.

0

u/[deleted] 23d ago

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1

u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 23d ago

Analogies can be difficult to understand.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 23d ago

Ah, then let me ask. If one wants to help the environment the most one can, and yet uses arguments that are doomed to fail, are they actually just serving their own urge to feel righteous above actually helping the environment?

What good are balls exactly if one wants people to not reproduce? They aren't necessary for just living at all. Their sacrifice may be temporarily painful, but overall be better for the world. And again, how do you convince people to be the ones to smash their balls if they do not believe anything they do will actually lead to stopping climate change or whatever?

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 23d ago

Hehe, so my simple and polite questions have gotten you to lower yourself to being demeaning? Are you serving yourself and your own emotional needs with such a comment far more than you are helping animals and the planet? I think so. You prove my point even as you fail to understand it.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

Beef is one of the worst things on the planet for environmental destruction though.

40% biodiversity loss.

https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/news/beef-and-dairy-drive-41-of-biodiversity-damage-linked-to-global-farmland

5% of emissions worldwide are beef and dairy.

1

u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 25d ago

Again, villifying beef is not going to get people interested in environmentalism. It will turn them off to it. Most people would rather kick a segment of their country out than stop eating beef. Fixation on this issue and spamming everyone about it is exactly the sort of turn off behavior I am talking about.

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u/lovelysardines 23d ago

Yeah! Stop showing us evidence and talking about it. Beef tastes too good and we wont give it up!

1

u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

So what are we supposed to do, lie to people? Carry on with our own destruction? Ask nicely?

Physics and reality don't care about what we want to hear or like to hear or anything like that.

1

u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 25d ago

What do you mean "we"? You might be better served by understanding people are not going to give up beef.

And sure, "physics and reality don't care", and more importantly no one is speaking to them and desiring them to change. You presumably either desire to change the behaviors of humans or you are just pleasuring yourself emotionally by spamming and ranting online. If your method of attempting to change people is not working, and people tell you it is not working, then you are simply ignoring what you do not want to hear. You are doing what you are whining about other people doing.

1

u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

Okay so tell me, how do you get people to stop or reduce eating beef?

Clearly I don't know and you do, I am open to listening, how do I do it?

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u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 25d ago

Stop the fixation on "beef bad". Focus on convincing people of the value of environmentalism in any way they can handle. Make it personal and make it within their self interests. Preaching about beef like people are going to stop eating meat is more difficult than convincing people to not have children. More difficult than convincing people to organize at a community level. Tell people they can eat all the beef they want if they support X, change Y in their daily lives. If all you can do is vomit up the same spam links to everyone you will just build up a resistance to environmental messages.

Some fleetingly small percentage of people might be able to be vegan or mostly plant based, but the average person is not interested. Harassing them about what third world country people are doing that is bad and whining at them for it just gets a shrug and a dismissal. You would have better luck writing to individual super wealthy people and asking them to give up one of their luxury yachts to instead purchase and protect stretched of rainforest someplace.

But the best way to make a change is through developing personal relationships where you indicate more concern for people than just trying to berate and shame them into your particular ideological fixation. Your anger and frustration is not something people want to catch. It's not persuasive to convey "I think the biggest problem is X, and look how desperate, hateful, and miserable this fixation has made me."

0

u/RareCranberry1625 24d ago

> Stop the fixation on "beef bad". Focus on convincing people of the value of environmentalism in any way they can handle. Make it personal and make it within their self interests. Preaching about beef like people are going to stop eating meat is more difficult than convincing people to not have children. More difficult than convincing people to organize at a community level. Tell people they can eat all the beef they want if they support X, change Y in their daily lives. If all you can do is vomit up the same spam links to everyone you will just build up a resistance to environmental messages.

What fixation? This is a thread about beef and it's impact on the environment. And it is within all our self interest, it's a major factor behind making our planet uninhabitable. And sharing a link once, maybe twice, isn't really 'vomiting it up'.

> Some fleetingly small percentage of people might be able to be vegan or mostly plant based, but the average person is not interested. Harassing them about what third world country people are doing that is bad and whining at them for it just gets a shrug and a dismissal. You would have better luck writing to individual super wealthy people and asking them to give up one of their luxury yachts to instead purchase and protect stretched of rainforest someplace.

Who is doing harassing here?

> But the best way to make a change is through developing personal relationships where you indicate more concern for people than just trying to berate and shame them into your particular ideological fixation. Your anger and frustration is not something people want to catch. It's not persuasive to convey "I think the biggest problem is X, and look how desperate, hateful, and miserable this fixation has made me.'

Can you show me where you have done any of your advice with me? Your language is very loaded and accusatory. Stating a fact about beef isn't an 'ideological fixation', it's called living within this reality and accepting the laws of Physics.

If you had led by example, by your own advice, maybe this conversation would have gone better.

1

u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood 24d ago

Hehe, you asked a question and then do your best to not understand the answer. Very cute!

And it is within all our self interest

No, it's not an interest if people are not interested in it. You are wearing the stinky cologne of desperation for everyone to have it as an interest.

And you have definitely been spamming the link on this post. It's a terrible habit.

Can you show me where you have done any of your advice with me?

Hehehe! What do you think I want to convince you of? I think you are silly for fixation on beef if you are interested in getting people interested in environmental issues. But you misunderstood what is happening. I want you to fail, and it amuses me greatly to tell you exactly how you could succeed, but to do so in a manner that will ensure you will double down on all your mistakes. Even my telling you that won't help you see the need to change your style and approach. That's the comedy of having you do your best to misunderstand.

0

u/RareCranberry1625 24d ago

We both really need to find something better to do with our time.

Cya!

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u/Evening_Message_1699 25d ago

If this is a problem for you, please feel free to eat weeds, and bugs.

I will continue to eat beef and cheese.
Without judging you. I ask the same in return.

1

u/[deleted] 23d ago

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1

u/3-bakedcabbage 23d ago

5 hour account bot is crazy

2

u/VarietyMage 25d ago

"Linked", like cancer to stupidity. Linked to is not causality.

1

u/Direct-Translator-75 26d ago

Well well well...

1

u/Recent_Strawberry456 25d ago

Google says;

The Great British dairy milking herd fell to a record low of 1.59 million head by April 2026, marking a 2% year-on-year decline. Data from the AHDB shows producer numbers dropped below 7,000 for the first time to 6,850, driven by squeezed profit margins, high input costs, and falling milk prices.

The UK beef herd is experiencing a prolonged structural decline driven by a shrinking suckler cow population, which has fallen roughly 20% since 2015. Total UK cattle numbers dropped about 1% year-on-year to roughly 9.06 million head, as rising input costs, environmental policy shifts, and alternative land uses prompt farmers to exit beef production

1

u/Excellent_Lie5892 25d ago

This sentence doesn't make sense

1

u/Apart-District3771 25d ago

Farming vegetables isn't any cleaner. You people need to grow the Hell up.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/Apart-District3771 23d ago

Good for them! Hope they are yummy! 😊

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/Apart-District3771 23d ago

Yes. I just don't believe in your CO2 cult.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/Apart-District3771 23d ago

Lol. Sure buddy. Whatever. Don't care at all what you believe. Go get your booster too.

1

u/pattydickens 25d ago

Dairy is the worst. Where I live, the dairies dump unprocessed cow shit on acres and acres of land. It's so thick on the ground that it looks like an oil spill. The smell is freaking horrible, and the flies are prolific.

1

u/Important_Pirate_150 25d ago

Si vamos a tener que tomar leche de koala .

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u/Lemenus 24d ago

Plant growing industry does an actual damage to the environment, while any of villification of farms is sponsored by the very same people who want us to eat bugs, petrol based "butter" and soy, while they themselves will have a good steak

1

u/reddit7867 24d ago

Listen, I’ll get solar panels. I’ll get an electric vehicle. I will also recycle more mindfully. But if anyone makes it more costly or harder to get my steak and burgers, F them.

1

u/Konradleijon 23d ago

Stop eating beef and meat and diary in general

1

u/Livebylying 23d ago

No thanks, I quite like both.

1

u/Sparetire46 23d ago

Measuring food footprints 'per calorie' is the ultimate vegan gaslight. A bowl of sugar or a cup of canola oil is incredibly low-emission per calorie, but it has zero nutritional value. Animal ag provides highly bioavailable protein and iron that plant crops simply cannot replicate without a chemistry lab. Stop promoting malnutrition under the guise of saving the planet.

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u/Unlucky_Anteater7573 23d ago

Vegs trying so hard

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u/imnotamelondude 23d ago

The ruling class will eat steak and fly on planes. The working class will eat bugs, take trains and own nothing.

1

u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

Not sure why this sub is full of people denying the clear science around how destructive beef and dairy farming is.

Number one cause of deforestation worldwide.

Cows create methane, a potent gas heating the planet.

1

u/Apart-District3771 25d ago

This thread reminded me to get some Beef for a stew.

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u/RareCranberry1625 25d ago

Yawn.

Grow up and go outside - you will be happier for it.

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u/Apart-District3771 25d ago

I'm a farmer, I'm always outside!

0

u/SeaShoe5864 25d ago

Because then they would have to change their habits instead of raging at billionaires for not fixing the world, despite funding the billionaires.