Eight reasons regenerative grazing can’t make beef climate-friendly | Project Drawdown

a month ago by usernamesAreTricky to c/green

An influential regenerative grazing movement continues to grow. But here's why the science doesn't back up the purported climate benefits.

usernamesAreTricky 7 points a month ago

TL;DR

Beef already has too massive a baseline footprint to build a regenerative future on

Shifting to plant-rich diets results in more food and higher carbon sequestration

Wild ecosystems have higher and more stable soil organic carbon than pastureland

Rain, temperature, geology, and previous land use determine soil organic carbon more than grazing techniques do

Most grazing land is too arid to store meaningful amounts of soil organic carbon

The regenerative case for beef relies on flawed studies without baselines or proper geographic controls

Grass-finished cattle are still not wild ruminants

Beef drives biodiversity loss, and even reducing grazing intensity doesn’t mean ecosystems recover

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TropicalDingdong 0 points a month ago

Mmm...

1 sure

2 not part of the argument

3 depends

4 depends a lot

5 no.

6 so does most science. Welcome to science.

7 ok.

8 it depends. Even in high biodiversity area disturbance is a patchwork and in some places, abandoned agriculture lands become monocultures if invasives. The degrees matter here.

Anyways, here is from a paper I just got into publication on the matter...

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usernamesAreTricky 8 points a month ago

I am not sure I follow what you mean that shifting to plant-based diets is not part of the argument? Many/most of the promoters of "regenerative grazing" claim that it negates need to do any shifts towards plant-based diets (which is the most problematic claim in my view)

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TropicalDingdong 4 points a month ago

Its a non sequiter. Thing A being bad isn't related to thing B being bad.

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usernamesAreTricky 6 points a month ago

Shifting towards plant-based diets being a better than any form of beef production is very much related here. The promoters of "regenerative grazing" claim that no action is needed because of it, so the baseline is not "what if we consumed the exact way we always did"

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