It’s often thought that livestock farming consumes land that could support crops, but a large portion of agricultural land is unsuitable for other uses. Livestock can convert non-arable land into nutritious food while also improving soil health."
This is a red herring. Livestock takes up 80% of agricultural land while providing only 20% of the world’s supply of calories. Removing livestock would free up a significant amount of crop growing land (where crops are currently grown for livestock consumption,) which would first be repurposed for human consumption. Most pasture land could be rewilded without affecting the supply of calories to humans.
Improvements to soil health are meaningless where in its natural state, that land would take the form of forests, peatlands etc. which can sequester huge amounts of carbon.
"Use of agricultural land for livestock
It’s often thought that livestock farming consumes land that could support crops, but a large portion of agricultural land is unsuitable for other uses. Livestock can convert non-arable land into nutritious food while also improving soil health."
This is a red herring. Livestock takes up 80% of agricultural land while providing only 20% of the world’s supply of calories. Removing livestock would free up a significant amount of crop growing land (where crops are currently grown for livestock consumption,) which would first be repurposed for human consumption. Most pasture land could be rewilded without affecting the supply of calories to humans.
Improvements to soil health are meaningless where in its natural state, that land would take the form of forests, peatlands etc. which can sequester huge amounts of carbon.
If livestock was restricted to non-arable land and not fed any arable crops : it would be a net positive, no?