That TikTok video about 'grass fed beef being bad for the planet' made me actually do research

Saw this video last month from some influencer claiming grass fed beef is worse than factory farmed because of land use and methane. I almost believed it because the editing was slick and she had graphs. But then I dug into actual studies and found out the numbers she used were cherry picked from a single paper that got criticized by other scientists. She conveniently left out that rotational grazing can actually build soil carbon too. Has anyone else noticed how these viral takes on food systems leave out all the nuance?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren_mitchell3d ago

The land use argument always gets me because it ignores that most grass fed operations use land that can't grow crops anyway. Factory farms are growing corn and soy on prime farmland that could actually feed people directly. The methane thing is also misleading since grass fed cattle live longer and the carbon sequestration from managed grazing can offset a lot of that. Those slick videos just pick whatever fits their narrative and leave out the messy reality that makes food systems complicated.

the_eric3d ago

Respectfully disagree - the carbon math still doesn't work even with good grazing practices.

anthonynelson3d ago

And you're right @wren_mitchell, the whole thing feels like picking sides in a bar fight rather than actually looking at the land. My buddy runs a small grass fed herd on hills in Vermont where the only other option is letting it grow back into thorn bushes and rocks. Meanwhile the big soy operation down the valley sits on flat black dirt that used to grow vegetables for the town. Nobody talks about that tradeoff because it doesn't fit the clean narrative of either side. Same with the methane stuff, I watched a video of a guy measuring gas from a feedlot versus a pasture and he conveniently left out that the pasture cattle were eating alfalfa that had been trucked in from three states away.