Growing More Food with Fewer Resources (Guilt Free Meat Eating)

I’m kicking the new year off with some good news!

Remember when I wrote about how the egg industry and egg farmers made such great improvements in its environmental impact? (You can read that post here.) I found out that many other aspects of agriculture are doing the same!

For example, pig farms are producing way more meat with a much smaller carbon footprint. (Check out the details here.)

And the same goes for beef. While we often hear that beef production has a detrimental environmental impact, the truth is far different. Fewer animals, less land, less feed, less water, but more meat! (Details here and here.)

I was talking to my dad – a corn and soybean farmer – a few days ago about a particularly frustrating commentary piece we read in the a Twin Cities newspaper. The writer claimed all these terrible things were happening to the environment because of farmers (without citing any actual proof, by the way). Clearly she had her own agenda, and she has a right to her opinion, but her perception is a far cry from how my own family treats their land – and how the livestock farmers I know care for their animals.

Poultry, pork, beef and dairy farmers are working hard to continually improve the environmental impact of raising food for consumers. I see this every day through my work and connections with farmers of all different shapes and sizes across the country.

As our population grows at astonishing rates and we look ahead to 2014 and well beyond, farmers will have to keep growing more food with fewer resources. It’s great to know they are already off to a pretty good start!

This post was part of a series (opinions strictly my own) hosted by Katie of On the Banks of Squaw Creek.  If you’re interested in reading more about guilt-free meat eating, check out:

1. We’ve been eating meat for 1.5 million years.

Home Again Finnegan

2. Eating meat made us smarter

Lipstick and Tractors

3. We were born to eat meat.

Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids

4. Meat provides us with nutrients we can’t easily get elsewhere

Farm Girl Facts of Life

5. Farms are lowering their carbon footprint.

My Other More Exciting Self

6. 96% of farms are family farms

Kansas Cattle Ranch

7. Farm animals are not the same as pets.

Kellie for Ag

8. Bacon, steak and Thanksgiving

On the Banks of Squaw Creek