A farmer in Australia is fuming after an article in the health and beauty magazine Coles hailed the financial and environmental benefits of eating less meat.
Beef farmer Adam Coffey accused Coles of making ‘a wild statement’ and stressed the importance of including ‘facts backed by science’ via social media.
‘Vegan agenda’
Coles promoted a meat-reduced diet in an article.
The magazine stated: “Not only is eating less meat good for the environment – and your budget – but it can also have a positive impact on your health.”
The piece pointed readers to trying vegetarian meals ‘a couple of times a week’, by including ingredients such as sweet potatoes and lentils.
Writing from his Twitter account, Adam tagged the magazine and asked: “Hey Coles would you care to reference your statement regarding meat & the environment and/or let us know who is driving your vegan agenda?”
Animal agriculture
In another tweet, he added: “Keen to know why their magazine is full of plant-based, dairy-free, meat-free, vegan recipes when the bulk of the population enjoy a balanced, unrestricted diet.”
He also argued that red meat is ‘good’ for human health, and that cows are ‘good for the environment’.
However, multiple studies directly link eating red meat to increased chances of developing cancer. In addition, a wealth of studies have linked animal agriculture with producing high percentages of greenhouse gases.
When the bushfires raged through the country in 2019, vegan advocates around the globe called on more people to adopt a plant-based lifestyle to reduce their impact on the environment.
Angry farmers
Adam is not the first farmer riled by pro-plant-based messages. Members of The National Farmers Union branded a documentary as an ‘attack’ on their livelihoods.
However, attitudes are changing and more farmers are transitioning to favor plant-based farming. Some are even forming animal sanctuaries and going vegan themselves instead.
Reducing meat is also in line with a steady rise across Australia. Roy Morgan, an Australian Market Research Company reported in 2019 that 2.5 million Australians ate a mainly vegetarian diet.
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This farmer’s thinking is behind the times.
If he were to practice regenerative Livestock, he would be well ahead of the times.
Even when farmers use regenerative agriculture to raise livestock, there is no net sequestration of carbon. So raising beef for food is a dying proposition whichever way you look at it.
Try telling that to 60 million + Bison your lot got rid of in order to grow grains and pulses ( carbon release + masses of nitrous oxide )
Vegans in the 19th century killed off bison for their tongues and skins? Hmm, doesn’t really sound like us. But if you say so.
So you don’t eat grains, pulses, oil seeds, nuts, avocados etc. because if you do I might suggest that you stop sniping at people that are trying to reverse the damage done by 200 yrs of industrial agriculture ( plant and animal ) merely to support your own personal views.
I’m all for regenerative agriculture. Permaculture and food forests. I’m all for rewilding the great plains with bison and wolves. I believe we need to use no till organic agriculture and crop rotation to improve the quality of the soil and get away from pesticides and herbicides.
But they key to a sustainable and secure food future is first we need to get rid of all the cows. The population can do that, simply by not eating beef or consuming dairy. Then our system will start to balance itself. Because you understand that 40 percent of the world’s grain is fed to livestock. Right?
“40% of the worlds grain is fed to livestock” WHAT! and you claim to understand regenerative Ag?
Are you saying that is not a fact?
How can we have a sustainable food system if we use a good chunk of the products of agriculture to feed to animals? An entirely unnecessary and wasteful practice. We should be feeding humans, not animals.
Since when were forage fed animals fed with anything? The beauty of the system is they convert foods we can’t eat into foods we can, and in the case of regenerative Ag they rebuild the topsoil and absorb carbon. When they’ve finished you can grow crops ( without chemicals ).
It is not a net sequestration.
Do you know that you can use cover crops to build soil?
We are not lacking calories. We are using too much land growing crops to feed animals and for fuel. And lands used for grazing would sequester carbon if they are rewilded. Not all land should be used to make money.
Matt if you want to be a vegan fine by me. But don’t F*****g tell me my job. I’ve been involved in various aspects of land management for 50 yrs, that includes conservation, rewilding etc. I Visit farms on a daily basis and i’ve seen the good, bad, and the downright ugly ( which is why I largely avoid agricultural products ). I could spend hours trying to explain things to you but it would a total waste of time since you seem incapable of understanding anything that does not comply with veganism.
You are the one hanging out in a vegan comment section. What you fail to understand is that we are the only ones with a workable plan here. Eat plants, rewild the spare land. People like you need to get on board before the earth goes down the toilet.
Carry on dreaming son, I don’t know how old you are, but I hope you don’t live to see the consequences, With 7.8 billion people and rising there’s not much hope left. It’s back to good old Jim Lovelock, RETREAT, decarbonise, deindustrialise, and above all depopulate. In the meantime try and save the land, you need it to grow plants and we’re loosing it at 23 hectares a minuet. The only way to save it on the scale required is by the constructive use of livestock, unless you think you can find enough mulch and compost to treat 51 million hectares of cropland. All of the major non partisan groups ie. The Soil Association, Campaign For Real Farming and re-wilding groups, maintain that mixed integrated agriculture is the way forward. But if you think a bunch of animal rights activists know better, feel free.
Yeah we need depopulate. Depopulate cattle. We use the vegan ideology as a tool to do that. Time is short.
Reintroduce bison like they are in the UK.
Land used to grow forage could be used to grow food.
Tell me Roland, do you eat grain fed beef?
I don’t eat agricultural produce at all ( animal or plant). Notable exceptions being I do like coffee with cream, and sauerkraut with forage fed pork ( German ancestry), I also admit to eating avocados and I’m not too sure where some of my nuts come from.
You said that you don’t eat agricultural produce at all. Then you immediately contradicted it.
The point I was going to make is this: You cannot feed 7.5 billion people on pasture raised meat. It just isn’t happening. Just 3% of beef in the US is grass fed. There just isn’t the land. So if people want to eat meat at volume it has to be grain fed.
Sorry! badly written on my part, “your lot” should read European Agricultural Settlers.