this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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Claiming that something is on its whole sustainable is rather loosely defined (i.e what level of impact is considered sustainable and on what metrics), so let's look a little closer. What many are saying there is that process is still going to inherently be much more inefficient compared to growing plants directly for human consumption
It turns out to be the case that the worst-case production of any plants-based production comes out ahead compared to best-case production of meat, dairy, etc. on virtually all environmental metrics
https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/htm
Even true of synthetic fertilizer usage compared to the best case of animal manure
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344922006528
In terms of biodiversity
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/16/most-damaging-farm-products-organic-pasture-fed-beef-lamb
If we compare more typical production rather than best to worst, the differences are even more apparent
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25374332/
Because I see quite a lot of misinformation in this area, I created a doc of sources where I put relevant quotes as I look into things. It's now 28 pages. You'll probably see more walls of text from me on that front :)
Actually, do you have a link to those 28 pages? I'd be interested in reading through it all.
It's not anywhere online, but I can DM you a copy of the file if you'd like
That would be great.
Sent you a DM
Awesome, thanks! I only have a few resources when these sorts of discussions come up and it's always nice to have fuel for the fire.