DB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 3,1981
Let them eat meat
As the world rushes toward
overpopulation and eventual
starvation, a lot of pressure is
being generated to drastically
change or even eliminate animal
agriculture.
The thought behind this is that
animals are inefficient users of
protein. And instead of pushing a
lot of feed grain through steers,
pigs and chickens, we should grow
food crops that can be consumed
directly by people.
We may come to that eventually
before we starve, we’ll make
many changes in our eating habits
but don’t expect Americans to
stop eating meat any time soon. In
fact, don’t expect them to stop until
they are forced by price, scarcity
or some other overwhelming
factor. Consumers won’t stop
eating meat out of a feeling of guilt
or of compassion for hungry people
in other lands. .
Let’s face it most of us like
meat and we’re not about to sur
vive on soybeans and granola
while we still have all the other
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vestiges of the good life. And long
as we pay such a small chunk of
the weekly paycheck tor meat,
we’ll keep on buying.
As you look at some other
countries notably Japan, you
realize how much people are
willing to pay for the kinds of food
they enjoy. It will take more than a
long-range, loosely defined world
need to cause any noticeable
shifting from meat to plant
products.
There’s another side to the story,
that of the producer. A substantial
number of American farmers raise
meat animals as part of their
operations. To suddenly stop
producing them would be
economic disaster for those far
mers.
You see, American farmers
already grow much more grain
than we use in this country. Until
recent years, it’s been very dif
ficult to get rid of this excess. To
stop producing meat animals
would increase the supply of grain
available without a corresponding
demand and that would wreck
prices.
People who are asking for such a
shift really don’t understand this
or maybe don’t even care. They
simply look at the world population
figures and moralize about animal
agriculture.
Another factor that I don’t think
is being considered is how much of
America’s farmland is totally
unsuited to crop production.
Millions of acres in the West can’t
be irrigated, will never be
irrigated, and consequently will
never support crop production.
Vast areas in the East won’t
support crop production. This land
is either too steep or too wet or too
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rough or for some other reason
can’t be cultivated.
Granted there are a lot more
acres that could be growing food
and feed crops. There are also
millions of acres that will never be
tilled but that are quite capable of
supporting livestock.
Visiting a farm in Pennsylvania
recently, I was reminded of the
place of animal agriculture. Even
though the fellow farms more than
500 acres, he tills no more than a
couple of hundred. The rest is
pasture, woods, steep valleys and
other wasteland that can’t be ef
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Soil erosion is a constant threat
on virtually every acre and must
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be dealt with constantly. Open
fields are broken up into strips of
corn, soybeans, alfalfa and
grassland. Crops are rotated to
help prevent erosion, and no-till
planting is the rule on most acres.
Even with all of the technology
that’s available, soil washes away
and must be continually repaired.
To ask this farmer to sell his
livestock and grow food crops
would be stupid. Through careful
management he grows all the
crops he can, which he then feeds
to his livestock. He plans for
enough livestock to utilize the
grassland. If he runs short he can
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