Why grazing is great for our land
Media reports on methane burps, soil erosion, habitat damage and more has led to increasing concern over the sustainability of the consumption of grazing animals - particularly cattle and sheep. Calls to eat less meat – or none at all – have followed as a result, symbolised by a growing trend in veganism and vegetarianism.
However, despite being somewhat vilified, grazing animals can actually have a positive impact on the environment. Here’s how:
Moving methane
If you are familiar with the carbon cycle, you’ll know that carbon is continuously moved and recycled, aided by living things. If we are to simplify what goes on, the first step is photosynthesis. Plants use the power of the sun to take CO2 from the air and split it into Carbon and Oxygen. Whilst the Oxygen is released back into the air, the plant uses the carbon to grow. We then come along, as well as animals, eat the plant, metabolise the carbon for our own growth and then breathe out as CO2 again for the process to repeat.
The cycle for methane is similar. A more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, cows excrete the gas through burping. Worldwide, each cow burps between 70 and 120kg methane per year; when you consider there are around 1.5 billion cattle, that is a lot! Although when reading these statistics it is easy to see why cows are often painted as the bad guys, what many sources fail to mention is that this methane is just being recycled from the plants eaten by the cows - and the plants originally took it from the air. Cows and other grazing animals are therefore not adding to the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, they are simply moving it around.
Grazing helps to offset CO2 emissions
Which leads to our next point; grazing helps to offset CO2 emissions. Yes, you read that right. Despite a cloud of negativity surrounding grazing animals for their contribution to climate change, these animals actually help remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
when animals graze, they trigger plants to release exudates which help them to get the nutrients they need to rapidly re-grow. This increases the level of photosynthesis in the plants; thinking about what we have just discussed about the carbon cycle, an increased level of photosynthesis means more carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere by the plant, removing it from the air and pushing it down into the soil. This means that grazing animals actually increase the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by plants, compared to if grassland was simply left to grow.
As long as land is not over-grazed, grazing therefore helps to offset CO2.
Provides land with a use
In the UK, 60% of our land is grassland which offers very few alternative uses to livestock farming. Rugged terrains with steep slopes are often not suitable for arable farming yet provide the perfect home for livestock. In return, the animals help keep these areas from getting overgrown. Therefore, grazing animals often are not taking up land which could otherwise be used to grow crops; instead, they maintain land which otherwise would be left to overgrow.
It is because of this that the UK is considered to be one of the most sustainable places in the world to produce beef and lamb.
Like with any farming, it is often the methods used – not the animals – that leads to a lack of sustainability. This includes imported meats, which add to food miles, and poor practices which lead to over-grazing. This is not limited to livestock farming; eating a plant-based diet can also be unsustainable if the incorrect practices are used: mono-cultures, imports, destruction of sensitive ecosystems, to name just a few consequences. Therefore, rather than cutting meat out of your diet, it could be better to simply be conscious of where your food has come from, the practices used and shop local where you can.