patrick.net

Humans can't digest cellulose. It passes straight through us.

Grass is 30-40% cellulose.

70% of Earth's agricultural land grows grass and not much else.

Without ruminants, 70% of agricultural land produces zero human food.

Cattle are the only way to convert that grass into nutrition we can actually use.

They're not competing with human food. They're creating food from resources we physically cannot digest.

This is the point everyone misses: Cattle aren't inefficient. Cattle are the ONLY way to make marginal land productive.

You can't grow quinoa on Scottish highlands. The terrain is too steep, the soil too poor, the climate too harsh.

But grass grows there. And cattle eat grass.

Remove the cattle and you haven't freed up land for crops. You've just made 70% of agricultural land completely useless.