“We Need to Get Out Of Animal Farming All Together”

36 comments

  2. He might be right but extreme views like this won’t get anyone on side.

    It needs to be a gradual reduction in meat consumption.

  3. As if we don’t have our own swivel-eyed nuts, RTÉ is importing ones from England to lecture us on how a ham sandwich will lead to the heat death of the planet.

  4. Was veggie for 11 years, and it was grand. Sure we’ll have beyond burgers and the like here soon, most people can’t tell the difference. He’s certainly being a bit drastic, but it sure seems the planet is wrecked and getting worse, maybe we need a little drastic..

  5. I’ll wager he’s absolutely right. Animal farming on a large scale just isn’t sustainable. If we survive the next 100 years we’ll look back and wonder what the hell we were thinking. But we’ll probably irreparably damage the planet and out food supply before then.

  6. Irish beef is clean and healthy and sustainable. It’s nutrients are highly bioavailable to humans. Humans can eat 99% of animals and get nutrition from them. This is how we evolved.

    What would it take to replace a steak or a burger? Jackfruit or chickpeas don’t grow here and would have to be grown elsewhere with oil based fertiliser and imported using oil based fuels.

  7. Honestly we can reduce the herd size with cutting back on what we eat. If we reduce our food waste it would help a lot with methane and carbon.

  8. Can never understand why people get so triggered over the idea of having a plant based diet. I eat meat and would be disappointed to give it up but whatever I’d get over it. Admittedly I probably won’t give it up until it’s taxed to bits or banned but the way some people get so upset over it you’d swear they’ve never faced any hardship in their lives.

  9. A good chunk of the world hasn’t even begun the consumerism trail.

    Doesn’t bode well really if we’re already in bother.

  10. The Germans will be reverting back to using coal for some of their power plants. Did that come up?

  11. If sounds crazy but he is correct, I enjoy river fishing over the last 10 years the rivers have been destroyed in front of my eyes. The auld lads say there is about 1/10 of the fish/wildlife on the river now vs 30 years ago. Its depressing

  16. Get the sheep of the mountains

    Get the deer and goats of the mountains

    No more fertiliser

    Multi species swards

    Grow out the ditches

    Change from continental cattle to traditional Irish breeds

    It’s that simple

  18. I’m happy to cut down my consumption of meat. I eat meatless meals 3 three days a week (pasta, veg lasagne, falafel, tofu ramen, potato curry, pizza , something with mushrooms etc), a fish-dish once, and a chicken meal 2 days. One day a week, if even, is red meat.

  19. Holistic Agricultural is the only way to fix the world. The world can have Cattle , Sheep , Pigs and Chickens, just not all in the same place. Crop rotation, food forests and regenerative agriculture that put nutrients back into the soil is how we make the wold a little less shitty. Overgrazing by Cattle, Sheep and Deer have destroyed the regrowth of forest almost as bad as the English did and without forests soils die. About 70% of soil is made by mushrooms without trees mushrooms have nowhere to live and grow. We need a comprehensive plan to fix the country but the only thing you will get from the current political class is a reach around .

  21. Everybody on this thread should just bite the bullet and go vegan, and once you do, take every opportunity to tell others to go vegan on similar Reddit threads

  22. CAP is going to end, live cattle exports will be banned and we need to switch to growing our own food instead of importing everything.

    Exporting beef and dairy to totalitarian regimes doesn’t have a future.

  23. Yer man is right.

    Worked for a meat factory for a time, the plant slaughtered and processed 10-12k animals per week.

    Farmers will be foaming at the mouth at RTE for airing this type of discussion with good reason.
    After coming from that environment I understand the farmers, but on the other hand the entire practice is the most disgusting abhorrent thing I’ve ever had the displeasure to witness.
    Industrial slaughter and mass production is unsustainable.

    Alternatives are already on the market, but we’ll get there. Good luck taking the money from the hardworking farmers.

  24. I’ve said in another post, big push on ireland to reduce herd, yet Brazil is doubling theirs, which will bring it to around 300 million, so 2 million vs 300 million – reducing our herd will make fuck all difference and the argument that oh yeah a small country like Ireland is doing it it we will do it to is complete fantasy, USA, China, Russia??? Nonsense.

    Yes if there are other options for farmers to earn then tear away but this current rhetoric is complete horse shit – farmers you need to reduce your herd – you need to drive an electric car – you need to use reusables – all great ideas and orders, but where are the viable solutions? I have 50 cattle and 50 sheep, shall I just slaughter all and grow Cannabis on the land? I drive 350 miles once a week around the 6 counties for my full time job , there are no electric cars with this range & not enough charging points for me to do this in one day, should I quit my inconvenient job so & lose my home? Complete nonsense

  25. He is completely correct. People will disagree with him, traditionalists etc, but we rely way too much on animal farming. I’ve gone from eating meat 7 days a week to just 2 meat meals a week. Plants are so much more efficient at protein production.

    We really are behaving like those in the film Don’t Look Up.

  27. He is correct, we’re eating the planet away. We need both government actions, and individual contribution!

    I’ve switched to a plant based diet 11 years ago now, and I’ve never been fitter, happier, healthier. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. Oh and I’ve learned to cook delicious dishes (so you don’t rely on meat alternatives all the time – it’s grand every now and then but I don’t like them as a staple).

    For anyone interested in cutting back on meat, for environmental, health, or ethical reasons, here are some resources; I’ll leave these links here – and PM me if you have questions, I know it can be daunting!

    [Nutrition Facts](https://nutritionfacts.org/) & [Vegan Health](https://veganhealth.org)

    [Find a vegan friendly place to eat near your area!](http://www.happycow.net)

    [Have some common questions on ethics or other arguments?](https://yourveganfallacyis.com)

    [Free e-book with 30 arguments debunked!](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dMyS7mIrr4Fal8UKF900BbLMC11IwWRH/view)

    [Tons of useful vegan websites here](https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/wiki/usefullinks)

    [Checkout our r/vegan wiki for more resources](https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/wiki/index)

    Want to try Veganism? [Do the 22 day challenge!](https://www.challenge22.com/)

    And some great documentaries…

    [Dominion (ANIMALS)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRAfJyEsko)

    [Cowspiracy (ENVIRONMENT)](https://www.netflix.com/nl-en/title/80033772)

    [Forks over Knifes (HEALTH)](https://www.netflix.com/nl-en/title/70185045)

  28. Red meat makes my ‘toilet’ time very….. difficult.
    I’m quite happy to reduce or remove it from my diet. I’m also quite happy to follow a pescatarian diet. Vegan diet seems like a lot of hard work for me right now but it’s certainly something I’m willing to educate myself further

    We need trees more than we need steak.

    It’s down to the government to entice the farmers to come on board and stop crying all the time.

    It’s also down to us as individuals to use our vote in the next election wisely. If FFG/SF are pandering to the farmers maybe they don’t deserve your vote.

  29. He is completely right. We need to grow more food, not meat. Its takes so much water, space, feed and antibiotics to keep animals, never mind that it’s kind of weird. Grow more food and less meat!

  30. The overwhelming refusal of governments and people to acknowledge the massive impact that animal agricultural has on climate change is astounding to me. The top 3 climate change contributors are fossil fuels, animal ag and deforestation (mostly as a result of animal ag).

    I understand the inconvenience changing your lifestyle can have but the serious and deadly repercussions of animal ag are far more inconvenient in the long run than swapping a beef burger for a veggie burger. Vegan food has come a long way in the last decade and now so many major brands offer vegan products that genuinely taste amazing like Magnum, Cornetto, Ben & Jerry’s, Beyond Meat etc.

    Apart from very small pockets of remote, impoverished parts of the world who rely on local fishing, the vast majority of us have easy, cheap access to good whole food, vegan products so there is no excuse. This is not meant to sound harsh or blame anyone, it’s just a fact that we are reaching such desperate times for the type of future we face that there really is no excuse anymore to deny or bury our heads in the sand.

    Covid happened as a result of animal exploitation. Using animals has meant that zoonotic diseases are far more prevalent than if we didn’t use animals at all. We are also becoming antibiotic resistant which poses a huge threat for our future. The past 2 years we have faced death, restrictions, mental health issues, non-covid related health issues being pushed aside by the ever-burdened healthcare system, job loss, isolation, massive amounts of money being pumped in by governments which we will be paying back for generations and so much more. Imagine if none of that had happened? This is so easy to avoid and yet we keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

    I hope more and more people educate and inform themselves and choose to be the change we need. Of course governments and big corporations are the big issue but I hate that we use that as an excuse to change very little of our individual lifestyles. There is power in the people and the individual changes we make. Starting with the bigger issues like the food we eat is what should take precedence and then we can focus on smaller changes like plastic-use etc. No point in taking shorter showers and not using straws while you continue to fund and support arguably the most destructive industry on the planet!

  31. Even in my garden this year there was a handful of bees 🐝…I’m surrounded by farmers that spray the fields

  32. I agree about the animal farming but don’t agree that we should stop farming altogether, a switch to crop farming would be the better option. And the last thing we should do is support the selling of farm land to the government. This needs to be a slow process. Look at Sri Lanka after they banded chemical fertiliser and pesticides, their production fell by 80%. This contributed greatly to their economic collapse (granted agriculture is a big part of their economy). Farmers need a 5-10 year period at least. Not thrown in the deep end and when they inevitably fail are forced to sell their farm land to the government who in turn hand it over to digital farming companies owned by Vanguard and Blackrock.

  36. It’s up to all of us to change our habits. Farmers aren’t going to cut back on farming to save the environment, we have to reduce our consumption of meat and dairy which in turn will have a knock on effect. Don’t waste precious time waiting around for the farmers to change. We all need to take responsibility for our own choices and make changes at the individual level as well as pushing for change from governments, industry and farming.

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