Angus Whyte retweetledi
Australia is the world's largest beef exporter.
People who find this uncomfortable sometimes suggest that Australia should redirect this toward plant agriculture and feed itself more ethically.
Have they looked at a map of Australia?
Not the bit with the cities. Not the coastline. The bit in the middle. The part that constitutes 95% of the agricultural land.
It looks like the Outback at 40 degrees in October, where the annual rainfall in good years is 250mm and the soil has never had topsoil in recorded geological history.
It looks like the Mitchell grass downs of Queensland, where the black cracking clays grow native perennial grasses that have evolved specifically to be eaten by ruminants and cannot support cropping without irrigation that doesn't exist.
It looks like the Northern Territory station country, where a single cattle station might be larger than England and the nearest agronomist is six hours away by plane.
You cannot grow quinoa in the Northern Territory.
You cannot grow wheat in the Pilbara.
You can run cattle on both, because cattle evolved to convert the inedible into the edible, which is the precise function being asked of them.
The people saying Australia should eat less beef have not been to the places the beef comes from.
They've been to Melbourne.
Melbourne is lovely.
It is not where the food grows.
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