Enjoy the following excerpts from this article from the LA Times. It’s a review of a book that makes a case for the sustainability of raising cows for their meat. It’s written by Nicolette Hahn Niman, who is co-owner of cattle farming company, a lawyer and a vegetarian.
She believes that “cattle are necessary to the restoration and future health of this planet and its people.”
- “Nearly everything we accept as gospel about the negative environmental effects of cattle ranching, and the ill health effects of eating red meat, is wrong”
- Author of the book is a lawyer, wife of a rancher and vegetarian. Her name is Hahn Niman and she has now been added to my list of heroes.
- Hahn debunks the myth that cattle cause global warming & deforestation, that eating meat causes world hunger & heart disease & that overgrazing ruined the American West.
- “She has you so deep in the minutia of studies that you’ll be gasping for air.”
- She stresses that ALL FOOD IS GRASS… I would insist that all food is actually soil microorganisms, but since I didn’t write a book, I defer to Hahn. She says, “We need grass, and that grass needs cattle.”
- “Ruminants like antelope and bison — and now cows — create healthy grasslands when they’re kept by predators in tight “mobs” and constantly moved place to place, digging up the grass and leaving a steady stream of manure. Those grasslands thrive, preventing erosion of topsoil, which is one of our worst global environmental crises, sequestering massive amounts of carbon, and producing dense, nutrient-rich food from marginal lands. Moving those herds requires cowgirls and -boys, which also brings more jobs to farm country.”
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