As the political elites gather in Glasgow, Scotland, I can see the writing on the wall. Granted, you don’t need to be much of a fortune-teller to have read the tea leaves to see this coming but diet is going to be at the top of the list for “effective climate change” mitigation.
The number of outright lies and mistruths that have been spread about food production as it relates to climate health is clearly dangerous. Animal agriculture is vital for both planet and human health but don’t just take my word for it. Let’s investigate the real story.
First of all, I see some very “conditioning” type information being released about the menu at the UN Climate Change Summit 2021 regarding “food grown without fertilizer.” They are now working hard at planting the seed that fertilization is bad. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a wonderful graph that shows corn yields from 1860 until 1940 were extremely flat and consistently 25 to 30 bushels per acre. After 1940, corn yields take off like a helium balloon and grow each and every year and have not plateaued yet in 2021.
I will not make the argument that it is solely due to fertilization as genetics, soil health and management have also played a role, but without fertilization they wouldn’t be nearly as effective. I don’t think anybody needs reminding that carbon dioxide is a plant food; it is not a toxic greenhouse gas because it feeds plants.
Which brings me to my core issue of the day—animal agriculture. Animals consume plants, particularly plants that humans cannot eat. In short that means the animals reap the rewards of more CO2, which results in more plants. Even more importantly, if it were not for animals we would have even higher food waste annually around the globe. As a result of reducing the amount of grazing, we have already seen an increase in fires and now there’s even more.
It has recently come to my attention that in about 1900 Bjorn Lomborg wrote about fire in the Wall Street Journal. Before 1800, wildfires on average burned between 4.5% and 12% of California each year, far less than the 4.2% of the state consumed by the “climate apocalypse” in 2020. In short, the American Indians did not have the logging industry we put in place and the number of grazing animals was lower so they would actually burn the land in a controlled burn. The ash would actually fertilize the ground and create lush growth the next year.
I truly hope the answer to a healthy planet is more animals and not less. It is the basic cycle of life at play here. The more animals you have, the more feed that is needed, the more the animal eats the more they defecate and fertilize. The only nutrient on the planet better than CO2 is, in fact, digested plant material found in manure.
Milk, meat and eggs all contain vital components for healthy living. The amino acid profiles of each one are documented to improve the immune system. These animal foods each contain the highest forms of zinc that we know is a must for the immune system. The demonization of animal fat has led to the rise in chronic disease for the past 40 years.
There is one explanation for the noise that will be coming from this nonsense summit taking place in Scotland and that is the demise of the quality of life we have become accustomed to. The real issue here is that the only way to maintain a healthy, strong brain is the consumption of animal products; just one more reason to eat a big, juicy ribeye. I’ll take mine rare.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].