THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 114, July 3, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CONFINED LIVESTOCK BETTER FOR THE PLANET
By Dennis T. Avery
AGRICULTURE & THE ENVIRONMENT -- WHAT SCIENTIFIC STUDIES TELL US: MODERN INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE IS
FAR BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT THAN IS LOW-YIELD AGRICULTURE, INCLUDING ORGANIC FARMING.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS MUST RECANT ON THEIR CRITICISMS OF HIGH-YIELD FARMING & CONFINEMENT FEEDING OF
LIVESTOCK. GREENS MUST STOP DEMONIZING THE CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS, THE PESTICIDES, THE CONFINEMENT FEEDLOTS,
& THE BIOTECHNOLOGY THAT WILL BE NEEDED TO PRODUCE IN THE YEAR 2050 TWICE AS MUCH FOOD AS IS PRODUCED ON
TODAY'S FARMED ACRES.
FULL STORY:
Stanford University recently startled the world with its conclusion that conventional high-yield farming is far better for the
planet than low-yield farming. And this includes the First World’s current icon, organic farming. We know that high-yield
farms need less land to produce the same amount of food, protecting the huge amounts of soil carbon that would be
gassed off if we plowed more land for low-yield crops. However, the Stanford study says that high-yield farming may
have saved 600 billion tons of CO2 emissions. That’s equal to one-third of the greenhouses gasses emitted from the whole
Industrial Revolution since 1850!
“Our results dispel the notion that modern intensive agriculture is inherently worse for the environment than a more
'old-fashioned' way of doing things,” said Jennifer Burney, lead author of the Stanford study.
And, that’s not all: Confinement feeding of livestock — that favorite whipping boy for Greens — also helps sharply reduce
greenhouse emissions. I recently estimated it would take the land area of New Jersey for chicken “playgrounds,” if we put
all our birds outdoors. It would take the land area of Pennsylvania to raise our hogs on free ranges. Stanford should now
estimate the soil carbon losses, if we plowed those millions of additional hectares for animal “playgrounds.”
Indoor animals are also more comfortable, and thus need about 15 percent less feed per pound of protein produced, saving
still more acres of land for Nature and still more carbon left in the soil.
Feedlot cattle, eating grain from high-yield fields, produce less methane in their guts than cattle digesting grass — because
grass is harder to digest. Studies on beef cattle show methane emissions reduced by 38 to 70 percent.
Jude Capper of Cornell University reported last year (Journal of Animal Science, March 13, 2009.) that more milk,
from higher-yielding cows that are fed more grain and less grass, have helped reduce the carbon footprint of the U.S. dairy
industry by 43 percent since 1944.
“Interestingly, many of the characteristics of 1940s dairy production — including low milk yields, pasture-based
management, and no antibiotics, inorganic fertilizers, or chemical pesticides — are similar to those of modern organic dairy
systems,” Capper notes.
Capper’s study also found that supplementing dairy rations with genetically modified rBST would use 2.3 million fewer
tons of feedstuffs, need 540,000 fewer acres of land for crop production, and require considerably less chemical fertilizer
and pesticides
Confinement feeding also protects our streams and rivers. The manure from outdoor animals washes into the nearest creek.
The wastes from confinement animals are collected and used as organic fertilizer on crops.
Are confinement animals less happy? Probably not. Cattle, hogs, and chickens are all prey animals, and they see safety in
numbers. They like being together. Cattle graze and travel in herds. I’ve watched free-range turkeys, which always seemed
to be huddled together in a corner of their pasture.
If the environmentalist movement really believes humans are warming the planet, these studies tell us that Greens must
recant on their criticisms of high-yield farming and confinement feeding. They need to stop demonizing the chemical
fertilizers, the pesticides, the confinement feedlots, and the biotechnology which will be needed to produce twice as much
food — from today’s farmed acres — in 2050.
Or is demonizing modern farming too important to fund-raising in the cities?
RESOURCES:
Jennifer Burney, et al, “Greenhouse Gas Mitigation by Agricultural Intensification,” Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0914216107; 2010.
Jessica Marshall, “Grass-Fed Beef Has Bigger Carbon Footprint, Discovery News, Jan. 27, 2010.
Jude Capper, et al., “The Environmental Impact of Dairy Production: 1944 Compared with 2007,” Journal of Animal Science,
March 13, 2009.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Health & Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production & Consumption
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years.
Readers may write Avery at PO Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421, or send him email at cgfi@hughes.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity