14-7 Producing More Meat

How Are Rangelands Used to Produce Meat? Grass and Shrubs for Livestock

Rangelands are grasslands in temperate and tropical climates that supply forage or vegetation for grazing (grass-eating) and browsing (shrub-eating) animals. About 4 billion cattle, sheep, and goats graze on about 42% of the world’s rangeland. Livestock also graze in pastures: managed grasslands or enclosed meadows usually planted with domesticated grasses or other forage.

Is Producing More Meat the Answer? More Protein at the Expense of the Environment

In North America, most production of cattle, pigs, and poultry is concentrated in increasingly large, factory-like production facilities in only a few areas. As many as 100 000 cattle may be confined to a single feedlot complex and 10 000 hogs may be crowded almost shoulder to shoulder in a giant barn. This industrialized approach increases meat productivity. But it has a number of harmful environmental effects. Animal wastes from such facilities are typically stored in enormous open lagoons, which can rupture or leak and contaminate groundwater and nearby streams and rivers.

Expanding feedlot production of meat will increase pressure on the world’s grain supply because feedlot livestock consume grain produced on cropland instead of feeding on natural grasses. It will also increase pressure on the world’s fish supply because about one-third of the world’s fish catch is used to feed livestock.

What Are the Effects of Overgrazing? Eroding Soil and Fewer Livestock

Overgrazing occurs when too many animals graze too long and exceed the carrying capacity of a grassland area. It lowers the net primary productivity of grassland vegetation, reduces grass cover, and when combined with prolonged drought can cause desertification.

We do not know the condition of much of the world’s rangeland because of a lack of detailed surveys. However, limited data from surveys in various countries by the FAO indicate that overgrazing by livestock has caused as much as a fifth of the world’s rangeland to lose productivity, mostly by desertification.

How Can Rangelands Be Managed More Sustainably to Produce More Meat? Control and Restore

The most widely used method for more sustainable management of rangeland is to control the number of grazing animals and the duration of their grazing in a given area so the carrying capacity of the area is not exceeded. However, determining the carrying capacity of a range site is difficult and costly. Livestock tend to aggregate around natural water sources, especially thin strips of lush vegetation along streams or rivers known as riparian zones and ponds established to provide water for livestock. As a result, areas around such water sources tend to be overgrazed and other areas can be undergrazed.

A more expensive and less widely used method of rangeland management is to suppress the growth of unwanted invader plants by herbicide spraying, mechanical removal, or controlled burning. A cheaper way to discourage unwanted vegetation is controlled, short-term trampling by large numbers of livestock.

How Can We Produce Meat More Sustainably? Shifting Our Meat Priorities

Livestock and fish vary widely in the efficiency with which they convert grain into animal protein. A more sustainable form of meat production and consumption would involve shifting from less grain-efficient forms of animal protein, such as beef and pork, to more grain-efficient ones, such as poultry and farmed fish.