In the first episode of the "Farting Up a Storm" series, Jay & Ashlee seek to push back on four untruths that livestock industry opponents claim to be true. We use peer-reviewed research, meta-analyses and pure common sense to help the listener become more informed about the livestock industry, ecology, soil and more.

The 4 Untruths of Livestock Production Systems:

1. Livestock will never be carbon neutral because they emit greenhouse gases.

2. Livestock production on pasture cannot sequester carbon. 

3. A large portion of arable crops grown are consumed by livestock.

4. If we switch to a plant-based diet, we can take huge amounts of land out of agricultural production.

Unfortunately, our recording equipment malfunctioned during the recording of this podcast. We did our best to edit out the audio issues, but we ask you to overlook the audio static in this podcast. The juice is worth the squeeze.

PSA: If any words, acronyms, definitions and/or descriptions escape your understanding, we ask you to pause the podcast and look up what they are. The path towards wisdom is slow and deliberate.

References:

• George Monbiot on "The Proof" with Simon Hill, Ep. 284, Oct. 2023

• Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2021

• USDA: Cattle Sector at a Glance

• De Graaff et al.,Interactions between plant growth and soil nutrient cycling under elevated CO2: a meta-analysis, 2006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01240.x

• D.C. Reicosky, Tillage-induced CO2 emission from soil, 1997, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009766510274

• Oenema et al., Trends in Global Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Animal Production Systems, 2005, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-004-7354-2

• Sian Kou-Giesbrecht & Duncan N. L. Menge, Nitrogen-fixing trees increase soil nitrous oxide emissions: a meta-analysis, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3415

• Grazed and Confused - Oxford University Report on Livestock

• Schuman et al., Impact of Grazing Management on the Carbon and Nitrogen Balance of a Mixed-Grass Rangeland, 1999, USDA Access

• Yang Wu et al., Mechanistic understanding of interspecific interaction between a C4 grass and a C3 legume via arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.15434

• Ozlu et al., Soil health indicators impacted by long-term cattle manure and inorganic fertilizer application in a corn-soybean rotation of South Dakota, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48207-z

• Anne Mottet et al., Livestock: On our plates or eating at our table? A new analysis of the feed/food debate, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2017.01.001

• Supplementary Information to Anne Mottet's Research Paper

• Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock

• "If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares", Hannah Ritchie, March 2021.

• Christopher Poeplau, Axel Don, Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils via cultivation of cover crops – A meta-analysis, 2014, https://doi.org/10.101/j.agee.2014.10.024

• Building Soils for Better Crops, Ch. 3, Amount of Organic Matter in Soils, Fred Magdoff, Harold van Es, SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education),