So what has brought us to this worldwide catastrophe? Livestock has been farmed for centuries. No global warming back then (except the natural warming as the Earth was coming out of the last ice age) , so how are the cows to blame?
When did things start to change? I would say with the Industrial Revolution and with the need to find power for the new machines. Why did machines start to take over more and more? Because of greed and capitalism. OK we can't go back to that time and uninvent machines, they are here to stay, but do we really need to invent more and more so that the humble cow is not merely put out to pasture but killed off, never to return?
The thing that stood out to me was that the report wants farming to be more efficient and praised the most profitable farms. In my experience farming isn't just about profits, it's about producing good quality produce. It's quality not quantity that matters, and the farms that take time and measures to look after their livestock well are to be commended for not cutting corners with animal welfare just to get higher profits.
We need to start producing less stuff that we don't need and concentrate on the real issues. Farming is the most important industry we have yet it is going to be scaled back. How does that make sense? With Brexit looming we may not be able to buy food in as easily as before, why kill off our means of producing our own food? Unless of course you have shares in big business and want to bring the country to its knees so that you are in control. Greed again then.
Why can't we scale down our industrial production and put more workers back onto the land? Do we really need all the trappings of modern life? Do we need foreign travel? Yes, I fly a few times a year, but I would be willing to give that up if everyone did. I am not willing to give up eating meat. Do we really need all the gadgets produced today? Do we really need to manufacture meat of all things? It's manufactured food that has caused the obesity epidemic. Let's go back to eating healthy real food from small farms and forget this nonsense. The one thing we all need is decent nutrition, you can't get that from a laboratory. Ask the mice. I don't want to be part of a larger laboratory experiment. Do you?