True. And forgive my American perspective, but from an indigenous species perspective, those liberated herds shouldn’t be competing with our native wildlife for that space from a restorative environmental point of view. I’m in wild horse country, some of the earliest equine fossils are from my state, but their domestic-turned-wild descendants were non-existent here before the Spanish brought them over. Wild horses have found a niche and between human history, colonist as well and indigenous, have a place in our story. They’re problematic; they’re iconic. Unleashing domestic cows to go roam would present a whole slew of new problems. Look at what feral hogs have done, or how pythons have impacted Florida, or on the vegetation side, what cheatgrass has done to our sagelands. All this is human hubris. Even if we can recognize our fuck ups were not going back to what it was before, but how do we not keep making the same mistakes over and over even if our intentions are noble?
But to the problem of converting to veganism on a larger scale, I think you’d just gradually phase out by banning further breeding and the cow population could dwindle down. It wouldn’t solve a lot of the other adjacent problems though.
In the US the native herbivore with the “cow-niche” is the American bison. If we would restore ecosystems and replace captive grazers with wild grazers, increasing the wild bison population is the answer and much preferable to having wild cows (who don’t even exist in the first place, the wild version is extinct as mentioned). Of course bison is not an answer to what to do with the cows that already exist in the US of course.
However if a decision was made to ban all animal agriculture I would be a strong opponent of not rewilding any cows. They are not native and they are not even fit for living in the wild anymore. Just take a Holstein milking cow for example. What use does producing 40liter of milk per day have in the wild? None! Calves can’t drink even close to that amount. The lactating moms would get mastitis. They are not even fit to only make milk for just their calves anymore. Let the domestic cows die out in that case.
True. And forgive my American perspective, but from an indigenous species perspective, those liberated herds shouldn’t be competing with our native wildlife for that space from a restorative environmental point of view. I’m in wild horse country, some of the earliest equine fossils are from my state, but their domestic-turned-wild descendants were non-existent here before the Spanish brought them over. Wild horses have found a niche and between human history, colonist as well and indigenous, have a place in our story. They’re problematic; they’re iconic. Unleashing domestic cows to go roam would present a whole slew of new problems. Look at what feral hogs have done, or how pythons have impacted Florida, or on the vegetation side, what cheatgrass has done to our sagelands. All this is human hubris. Even if we can recognize our fuck ups were not going back to what it was before, but how do we not keep making the same mistakes over and over even if our intentions are noble?
The answer is bison
But to the problem of converting to veganism on a larger scale, I think you’d just gradually phase out by banning further breeding and the cow population could dwindle down. It wouldn’t solve a lot of the other adjacent problems though.
Like, send bison to kill the cows? Or the cows will go live with the bison? If the answer is bison, in not sure what the question is.
In the US the native herbivore with the “cow-niche” is the American bison. If we would restore ecosystems and replace captive grazers with wild grazers, increasing the wild bison population is the answer and much preferable to having wild cows (who don’t even exist in the first place, the wild version is extinct as mentioned). Of course bison is not an answer to what to do with the cows that already exist in the US of course.
However if a decision was made to ban all animal agriculture I would be a strong opponent of not rewilding any cows. They are not native and they are not even fit for living in the wild anymore. Just take a Holstein milking cow for example. What use does producing 40liter of milk per day have in the wild? None! Calves can’t drink even close to that amount. The lactating moms would get mastitis. They are not even fit to only make milk for just their calves anymore. Let the domestic cows die out in that case.
“Tasty free range steak” perhaps?