What's the problem with animal feed?

One of the biggest links between our food and deforestation of the rainforest is actually through animal feed. We meet the farmers trying to reverse our soy addiction and hear how they are producing soy-free meat.
A Wicked Leeks Film
Presenter: Nina Pullman
Producer: Stuart Everitt, with Christian Kay
With thanks to AgriGrub for additional footage.
Warning: Some footage of live animals may be distressing to viewers.
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[@Shane-zl9ry]

If you don't eat animals, you don't have to feed them. 🌱

[@danmorrell284]

No, but lots of people do eat them - so it's great for farmers to be finding alternatives to soy which have a much lower environmental impact, and actually have benefits for soil health. I'm always surprised at attitudes to this kind of thing from those following plant-based diets who simply cannot accept the reality of the world that they live in, and as a result cannot support improvements to the system. Don't let your perfect be the enemy of good.

[@Shane-zl9ry]

@@danmorrell284 If people ate less meat, it would be easier to manage. People eat too much and it reflects on society’s overall health. Heart disease is the number one killer in America and it’s directly related to what we eat.

[@danmorrell284]

@@Shane-zl9ry I 100% agree with the sentiment that the overall consumption of meat needs to be reduced. I believe that all of the meat that is currently consumed in the UK should come from agroecological/regenerative/organic systems and for that to happen consumption needs to reduce massively. But that's a different sentiment to your original post which suggests the answer is simply not eating meat, which to me, is not a reality that will ever exist. So we (and I believe those who don't eat meat for whatever reason) should support any initiatives aimed at decreasing the environmental impact of systems involving animals.

[@Shane-zl9ry]

@@chrisgartenn I agree about the processed foods. But, if you ask any cardiologist "Hey should I be eating bacon and butter?" They will tell you absolutely not. Whole foods and less (and lean) meat is the way to go.

[@hughmarcus1]

Very simplistic idea. If it were that simple someone would have thought of it long ago.

[@markchidester6239]

What is the problem with soy? It's a plant just the same as wheat and peas.

[@spiritdancer5637]

because the soy is 98% Gmo

[@hughmarcus1]

Unfortunately this film (noble as is it in its intentions), repeats the oft said half truth about soya from the Amazon. As always, the actual facts are slightly more nuanced. Let me preface what i'm about to say, by stating that I've actually switched to locally grown cereals such as oats, peas & spring beans for my outdoor reared pigs. I also feed some cereals at the shoulders of the season to my sheep.I've proved to myself it can be done. So Brazil & soya. Yes deforestation is a problem & indefensible, however what's forgotten is that Brazil is a vast country (it's actually bigger than Europe) so the proportion of soya from Amazonian regions is quite small. Secondly, the soya meal fed to livestock is a by-product. The valuable part of the soya bean is the oil. It's favoured for wok cooking due to its high melting point, so the first use of Brazilian soya is for human, not animal use. Thirdly, China takes the vast bulk of Brazil's soya meal, what comes to Europe is small by comparison. The UK is a minnow in this large trade.The quality standards of UK importers mean that they require supplies to come from areas that aren't deforested anyway. If this sounds like I'm defending the practice of feeding imported soya to livestock, it's the reverse. What I'm arguing here is that by falling into the deforestation trap, we are missing the point about the unsustainability of importing animal feeds from faraway places. Of course any debate around animal feeds needs to also note two things for balance. 15% of the UK's imported soya meal goes straight for human consumption (never mentioned). If we're talking about deforestation, then we cannot ignore the Far East, where deforestation for palm oil is a much bigger problem than the Amazon & that is almost exclusively for human use.

[@Simon-Smith.]

Interesting that they feed meat and not animals. 🤔 Lets stop harming animals instead of looking for better ways to do bad things.