Producing meat and other animal products

A view held by arguably a majority of food experts is that meat production is a far less efficient means of producing food than crop-based agriculture. The USDA estimates that it takes 20 times more land to get the same amount of calories from meat when compared to crops. ¹

The expected thing would be for people to prefer plant-based food more since it is easier to raise, cheaper, and more easily accessible. However, human appetites are increasingly becoming irrational. China illustrates this phenomenon the best. In 2012, Chinese citizens consumed 53 million tons of pork. By 2020, it was estimated that China, which was once not reputed as a major meat consumer, would double all European countries’ meat consumption. ²

It is not only people’s taste buds and financial realities that are changing. Animal products are referred to as complete proteins since they contain all the nine essential amino acids. While some whole plant proteins are also complete, they are not as versatile as animal proteins. Animal proteins also contain an important mineral known as heme-iron, which is more readily absorbed by the body than plant iron. It can be argued, therefore, that one of the ways of ensuring that a community is healthy is by ensuring easy access to animal products ranging from meat, milk, and eggs.

         As the Chinese and other people in once-poor countries become more affluent, the demand for meat will steadily increase. This demand will mean that more land that was traditionally forest or cropland will be converted to pastures and feedlots, more formally known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Considering that the world’s population will almost double by 2100, it is clear that we are staring at a crisis, which will need more than just financial investments to get out of. In this section, we will discuss the various ways of producing meat, their pros, cons, and an assessment of each method’s resilience and sustainability in the face of a rapidly changing world.

There are several ways of producing or obtaining meat. Hunting was once a major source of meat in some modern societies, it is no longer viable due to curbs on game meat in several countries. This article will be confined to the following ways of producing meat and other edible products, such as milk, eggs, and honey.  

• Herd grazing
• Fishing (in lakes, seas, rivers, swamps, and oceans)
• Intensive fish rearing, in fish ponds and aquaponics
• Concentrated animal feeding operations
• Free-range animal farming
• Insects  as a source of food

The article will also look into crop farming and other activities that are specifically carried out to provide food and supplements to animals kept for meat and other edible products. Animal-focused farming:

• Animal feeds, including insect-based feeds
• Insect farming for human consumption

We will also explore sustainable agriculture, with a focus on the symbiotic relationships between plants and animals, and between different animals, which enable the environment to regenerate and better sustain life in the face of a burgeoning population and climate change. Instances of these relationships will include

• Fish farming and poultry farming
• Use of animal manure in farming (including use of rabbit urine)
• Beekeeping
• Grazing in open fields and soil regeneration

Raising animals for food

Herd grazing

Extensive areas of the world’s available land, and even in the US, are committed to grazing. In the US, 34% of the land is classified by the US department of agriculture (USDA) as pastureland. ³

This proportion is roughly the same worldwide. Historically, access to pasture has been associated with better animal health and the production of more healthy products. For instance, Swedish law requires that all female cows 6 months and above in age must be grazed during the grazing season. The US government manages extensive tracts of land that it lets out to livestock owners for grazing.

Herd grazing, despite its numerous advantages and seeming popularity in societies around the world, is under immense pressure. Farmers have to balance between profitability and competitiveness. Farmers doubt the ability of grazing to sufficiently nourishing their cows for optimized milk and beef production. Consequently, there have been moves to either confine animals indoors or give them the sort of feed that will be effective in deriving the results expected, despite the numerous downsides that such systems have.

Herd grazing is best defined as an animal rearing method where the livestock obtains a vast amount of its nourishment from open pasture, as opposed to small exercise pastures, and confined spaces, usually indoors. Herd grazing has been cited as an important ingredient in soil regeneration and environmental restoration. This is besides the numerous health benefits that herds and the people they feed stand to reap.

Advantages of herd grazing

• Permaculture and soil regeneration – overgrazing exposes soil to water and wind erosion, which strips and exposes it. ⁴ Overgrazing also accelerates the rate of desertification, especially when coupled with other harmful farming activities. However, well-managed livestock grazing helps to till and nourish the land and restores soil to its natural status. Such grazing includes herd grazing that allows for reasonable recovery time between grazing intervals. Research suggests that when animals till the land, they mow down the dead vegetation that then fertilizes and protects the soil. Indigenous plants are set at the right depth, enabling them to access groundwater, and therefore safeguard their survival.

Only the soil is big and manageable enough to absorb significant amounts of carbon. This characteristic calls for the management of soil as an important and living ecosystem, which needs to be managed well to sustain life and arrest carbon-related climate change. Properly managed herd grazing gives the best avenue of achieving this.

In areas where wildlife and livestock co-graze, the benefits to the environment are even better. For instance, Aldo Leopold cites the cow as an important manipulator of grazing areas, making them better suited for deer. ⁵ At the same time, deer can utilize some herbs that cattle do not primarily target, in the process creating a vibrant ecosystem that can control both the natural requirements of wildlife and become economically feasible for livestock keepers.  

• Healthier products and higher quality products – Cattle raised on pasture gain weight more slowly. For an intensive process focused on turnover, this is more expensive than feedlots. ⁶ However, since this is the natural process of raising cattle, they need fewer antibiotics and other medication that is introduced to help them cope with intense feeding in more intense systems.

Grass-fed beef has more minerals than feedlot beef. This is partly due to the monotony of a feedlot diet, consisting of corn and other grains. Currently, there is no evidence to suggest negative health implications for humans for eating feedlot beef. However, grass-fed beef has been cited as being tastier and viewed as healthier. This has some implications for the market value of different types of beef, with grass-fed beef fetching higher premiums per unit than other types of beef.

• Cheaper to operate – When cattle are grazed in open fields, the farmer stands to spend much less than in intense feeding operations. ⁷ Animals are in their natural habitat when they graze and are therefore less likely to be stressed. In feedlots, where animals are mostly fed on an unnatural diet of cereals, the normal ruminant processes do not take place. Farmers, therefore, undergo an extra cost in medication, which further complicates the operations of the farm.

Disadvantages of herd grazing

• Management issues – When animals are in a herd, it is difficult to promptly identify and respond to issues facing the animals. For instance, a diseased animal in a herd grazing in pastures will spend more time among other animals before it can be isolated and treated. This means that, even though the animals are spread out more than in a feedlot, diseases will spread with a similar, if not more accelerated, speed than in a feedlot. 
• Greater need for land – on average, a cow needs between 1.5-2 acres of pasture in a year. ⁸ This means that more land is needed to rear cows. In places where land is expensive, it may be unfeasible to raise cows on grass, given the steep startup costs that might be too expensive. The demand for more land has negative effects on the environment if not managed properly. For instance, Brazil’s beef industry has been blamed for the rampant deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, where more than 7900km² of rainforest was cleared to make way for cattle ranches, with devastating consequences for the forest’s ecosystem and the wider region.
• Longer time to market weight – When compared to feedlots, cattle take longer to gain the weight desired before slaughter. This might end up making the process more expensive when overheads such as labor costs and veterinary services costs are considered.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Concentrated animal feeding operations, CAFOs, is a term used to refer to a situation where animals are kept in confined spaces for the purposes of producing meat, milk, or eggs. Food is brought to the animals, rather than the animals grazing in open fields. A more technical definition by the USDA refers to CAFOs as an animal feeding operation in which 1000 or more animal units are confined for more than 45 days in a year. Animal units vary based on an animal’s live weight; it is 700 dairy cows, 2,500 pigs, or 125,000 chickens.

The biggest difference between CAFOs and AFOs (animal feeding operations) is the scale. The USDA recognizes the impact that size has on various aspects of animal rearing, ranging from economic, environmental, and social. For instance, CAFOs may offer various benefits associated with economies of scale and many challenges associated with diseconomies of scale. These issues may not be present to such a degree in AFOs. We will focus on CAFOs in this article.

Most cattle in the world, and elsewhere in the world, spend their first 15 months in open pasture, before being consigned to CAFOs where they are fed an optimized diet that quickens their attainment of market weight. One of the main reasons for this approach is the incredible efficiency that CAFOs bring. For instance, in 1920, it took a free-range chicken 16 weeks to reach half the weight that a CAFOs-based chicken gains in just five weeks. ⁹

CAFOs have come under scrutiny due to the environmental issues surrounding this approach, as well as the economic and health issues they present. Today, more than 90% of the meat eaten globally, and 99% in the US, comes from CAFOs and factory-like farms. There are several advantages that farmers seek to exploit by keeping animals in confined spaces. In our discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of CAFOs, we will focus on cattle, pigs, and poultry, which are the primary animals subjected to these methods.

Advantages

• Economic considerations – As we have seen above, rearing a cow entirely on grass requires between 1.5 – 2 acres of land. Harris Ranch, in California, holds 120,000 cattle at any given time, on just 800 acres, or 150 cattle per acre. For places where land availability is a challenge, animal products can be conveniently produced using CAFOs. The usage of land also means a higher yield per unit of land than is normally seen in pasturelands. Additionally, animals reared in CAFOs gain weight faster, meaning that the former enjoys higher turnover, and profits, as a result. Cows, pigs, and poultry are usually fed a corn-based diet, which is not expensive in most countries. Internationally, a pig requires around 15 bushels of corn throughout its entire life (around 7 months). A bushel’s average cost is 4 dollars, meaning that raising a pig weighing more than 90kg would only require 60 dollars.
• Environmental considerations – One of the biggest emitters of methane gas, which has more destructive effects on the environment than carbon dioxide, is cattle. It has been argued that by keeping these animals for shorter periods of time, the amount of gas they produce is far less, and can therefore be termed to be aiding the environment by producing the required meat quantities within a shorter timeframe.

Disadvantages

• Animal welfare – The ranch in figure 2 is also referred to as “Cowschwitz” by locals. Cattle spend their lives in soggy, manure-encrusted pens, under corrugated sheets without a hint of grass to supplement their cereal-based diet. As ruminants, the cattle are not used to this type of feed, so it upsets their gastrointestinal organs. To help them cope, they are pumped with enormous amounts of antibiotics.
• Quality issues – While growth hormones are illegal in the UK and many other countries around the world, 90% of American beef that is reared in feedlots relies on the hormones. This is in addition to the antibiotics cited above. While the FDA says that it is okay to consume meat from animals that have received growth hormones, the UK and the EU have long banned beef containing such hormones since evidence suggests high levels of these hormones could be carcinogenic. Using antibiotics in cows raises the risk of humans contracting drug-resistant bacterial infections, which are responsible for 2 million infections annually, resulting in 23,000 deaths.
• Disease spread among animals – over several years of breeding, scientists and farmers have identified specific genetic traits that they want to amplify for better commercial value. Such traits include, according to Michael Greger, large chicken breasts. Over time, this has created animals that are almost genetically identical. ¹⁰ A disease spreading through a herd would find it very easy to jump from animal to animal, without any genetic inhibitions that would be normally witnessed. Additionally, scientists opine that this could make it more likely for animal diseases to become zoonotic.
• Toxic waste – In open fields, herds are essential to soil regeneration, depositing manure laced with nitrates and phosphates into the soil. In CAFOs, however, this natural asset turns into a toxin that threatens water supplies, the soil, and the air. Since animal waste is not treated, contaminated runoff water from feedlots can impact surface and groundwater, depositing plant nutrients into the water. This process, also known as eutrophication, reduces the amount of oxygen in the water, threatening aquatic animals’ existence.

Nitrogen from manure, combined with that in fertilizer is increasing, causing nitrate pollution in water. ¹¹ This pollution is significant since it has been linked to enhanced chances of developing cancer.

Insects as human and animal food

Despite the seeming novelty of using insects as human or animal food, the practice has been around for centuries. In most countries in the world, insects are utilized as a delicious snack or a key part of people’s diet. In Madagascar, for instance, two-thirds of the population already consume insects in some form. Currently, there are an estimated 2,000 insect species that have become part of the diet of more than 2 billion people around the globe. ¹²

It is not only humans who are turning to insects for food. By 2050, the world will demand 60-70% more animal products, the demand being driven by a growing population and increasing incomes. In many countries, there is stiff competition between food, feed, and fuel (in china, for instance, corn is being turned into fuel at an unprecedented rate). Faced with this competition, animal feed researchers and farmers have resorted to trying out insects as an alternative, even healthier, feed for animals.

There is ample evidence to show that for humans, insects are a richer source of proteins, calories, and even, flavor. For instance, a kilogram of fried grasshoppers costs more than a kilo of beef in Uganda. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, termites are a national delicacy, being consumed as a snack or a main diet, while the oil they produce can be used for other food preparation uses. In Germany, a street food dish of insect larva and soup is becoming a popular delicacy. PROteINSECT, ¹³ a project funded by the EU, has seen insects and their larva being grown on animal waste, and then being used to feed pigs, chicken, cattle, and fish. The results so far are described as highly encouraging.

Insects as human food

At a time when agrochemicals and animal hormones and antibiotics are raising serious questions about the safety and quality of food, it should come as a relief that insects could easily help complement, and even replace, many calorie and protein sources. Insects, which are also rich in essential minerals, are usually grow in organic conditions, in the natural environment. So far, there is little evidence of genetic engineering being used to make insects become bigger, reproduce more or any other trait that would potentially contaminate the authenticity of insects as organic food.

While we might try to make it look like insects are the panacea to our nutritional needs, this type of food is not very popular with a vast majority of the world’s population. In many countries in the West, insects are viewed as “yucky” food, which would take a massive social education operation to even become remotely acceptable. A cuisine is a matter of culture, and most European – based cultures have never had bugs as a significant part of their diet. ¹⁴ Things are changing, but they might not be changing fast enough for the food crisis that lingers ahead. Additionally, many insect species are not edible – several are actually poisonous, hence the need to have some sort of regulation

It takes 7kg of animal feed to get a kg of beef. ¹⁵ At the same time, only about half of normal farm animals is edible. For some, it is lower, when you consider that offal, the head, and the feet are waste. The economics for insects are compelling, however. From 2kg of insect feed, you will get 1kg of prime proteins in the form of insects. Once ready, you will eat the whole insect.

Insects as animal feed

On America’s East Coast, trillions of cicadas have emerged, providing dogfood manufacturers with a great source of proteins for dogs. The product, Brood X, is one of the most popular dogfeed in the country. ¹⁶ While it might be still too early to celebrate, this could be an indication of a future of animal feed in which the primary ingredient is insect – not animal protein. Insects are superior sources of calcium and other minerals that animals need.

At a time when there are concerns about the number of growth hormones and antibiotics that animals are exposed to, insects offer a potential means of ensuring meat and other animal products are truly organic and safe for humans to consume. Chitin, the main constituent of most arthropods’ exoskeleton, has been confirmed to be a useful probiotic. ¹⁷ Probiotics are important in establishing and maintaining gastrointestinal health, for which animals in feedlots are given enormous amounts of antibiotics. Other insects have been found to have antimicrobial properties, and can easily be adapted for animal feed. These qualities make insects crucial not only as feed, but also in boosting animals’ immune systems.

1. Additionally, research in the US shows that the impact of dairy cattle in America has such far-reaching impacts on the land, irrigation water, and greenhouse gases, to the extent that such practices must be integrated with other forms of farming, if farming is to remain environmentally sustainable.[↩]
2. China consumed up to 40.3 million tons of pork in 2020 alone, besides other types of meat. This represented a 33.5% increase on the 2014 figures. Despite the outbreak of swine-specific diseases during this period, estimates predict the growth in consumption will continue.[↩]
3. While the acreage under pasture and rangeland has increased marginally, forestland used for grazing has drastically decreased over the same period. Cropland has also reduced, as farmers find ways of producing more food on less land.[↩]
4. Overgrazing is a major source of desertification and soil degradation. When soil is exposed to excess water and wind, the topsoil is lost, and the microbes that make the soil healthy and able to support life are destroyed. The sustained loss of natural vegetation, especially cover plants such as grass, among other issues, leads to desertification.[↩]
5. In his writings, Aldo Leopold maintains that cattle can be used as a habitat management tool. This is especially so in the case of the deer, which does not share the same diet as a cow. Their synergic feeding habits mean that cattle can be reared on wildlife habitats with great results.[↩]
6. Most cattle are originally raised on open pastures, before being herded into feedlots for finishing. Some are however allowed to graze on grass their entire lives.[↩]
7. USDA approximates that Wisconsin farmers improved their income per cow by up to $200 per year. The research suggested that with sufficient pastures, it was significantly cheaper to graze dairy cows in open fields, as opposed to CAFOs or zero-grazing.[↩]
8. According to USDA, this statistic is reliant on several factors. The most important include the type of grass (and therefore, amount of feed available to cattle), weather conditions, and the cow’s characteristics – weight and age.[↩]
9. The big jump in the last 100 years is not down to feeding operations only. Improved animal husbandry, especially breeding, mechanization of agriculture, better formulated feeds, and perhaps most significantly, animal-targeted pharmaceuticals and hormones have helped in the changes witnessed.[↩]
10. In addition to these views by Greger, Sonia Shah, in a book titled the Pandemic, discloses that many farmers who conduct CAFOs are deeply worried about the spread of diseases they were not aware of, and the risks such diseases could have not only on their economic prospects, but health and reputation as well. Factory farms present the best way for such strange diseases to spread and become deadlier, she says.[↩]
11. In Minnesota, for instance, 95% of the state’s agricultural counties have nitrogen levels that exceed the recommendations of the state’s pollution control agency. The pollution has seen drinking water become more unsafe to drink, due to the concentration of nitrates.[↩]
12. Most of these people are in Africa, South America, and Asia.[↩]
13. The EU, recognizing the huge protein deficit that European countries face, has initiated the PROteINSECT plan with a view of supplying domestic animals and fish with insect-based food. It says that the food (specifically fly larvae) has highly digestible protein, can be grown organically, and consists the primary food for many animals and fish species. Another goal of the project is to introduce a uniform regulation framework in farming insects across the bloc.[↩]
14. According to the New York Times, which also suggests, among other things, that the trend is changing, with even honeybees forming part of the menu.[↩]
15. According to an article in the Guardian, it also takes 4kg of grain to produce a kg of pork. However, these statistics hold a big number of factors constant.[↩]
16. In addition to being blended in dogfood, cicadas have attracted the interest of chefs around the country, who see them as a useful way of adding calories, variety, and flavor to their clients’ dishes. Besides this, the EU has invested vast amounts of money to startups that aim to rear insects, or research ways in which insects can satisfy nutritional needs of fish, cattle, pigs, and chicken, among others.[↩]
17. By having such large amounts of raw proteins and antimicrobial properties, insects as animal feeds promises to drastically minimize, and even eliminate the use of antibiotics and aggressive growth hormones for animals, especially those that are hosted in CAFOs.[↩]