If you must eat meat... "Replace Beef with Poultry or Pork"

[MadHound]

112. Ah, what so many of you seem not to know,

Is that cows are required animals if you are practicing organic, rotational farming. For those of you who don't know, rotational farming is just that, you rotate different crops through the same field. The reasoning behind this is that some crops, like corn, are harder on the soil than other crops. Some crops, like soybeans, actually add nutrients to the soil.

The typical crop rotation cycle also includes a season of letting the land go fallow, and a season where that field is grazed by livestock, for the fertilizer value of their manure. Now chickens simply can't provide enough manure to do the field justice as far as fertilizer goes, and pigs, well, you don't want their manure in your crop fields for health reasons. So that leaves sheep, horses and cows. Sheep are actually quite good for this, but the thing is, sheep aren't very popular as meat in the US. Horses are far too hard on any field, they eat the plants right down to the root, thus leaving the soil bare, open to wind and water erosion. So that leaves cattle. They have a great ratio when is comes to plant matter going in to meat quantity coming out. They don't eat the pasturage down to the roots. And their manure is absolutely fantastic when it comes to fertilizing a field.

There was a reason that our forefathers practiced crop rotation, and raised cattle, namely because it worked. It was good for the soil, good for the farm. The trouble is, like a lot of things, you have to do this in moderation. Turning a couple of cattle loose on twenty acres is one thing, turning thousands loose on hundreds of acres is entirely different.

So I wouldn't say give up beef, but know where it comes from. Buy your beef from somebody who practices sustainable, organic farming. That way you can insure that you are indeed helping the planet with your choices.