Do you agree with Richard Dawkins?

[The Grand Nudger]

Most livestock are not dependent on "agricultural sources". This is a forced situation. Cattle, just as one example, are ill equipped to eat corn. They eat grass. We cannot eat grass. Unfortunately grass fed cattle take up space that 1st world countries cannot spare (because we can afford nutrients, irrigation, and equipment). Pasture land and farm land are not the same thing, not even close. Which is why so much beef gets imported (and also why imported beef is cheaper, many times they're grazers or mixed grazing feedlot).

Livestock are more reliable because they a orders of magnitude less susceptible to loss by disease or drought or pests. They can survive and provide food for the entire year, and often subsist on marginal soils or from food sources that are not fit for our consumption that can themselves be grown on those marginal soils. The range of byproducts from livestock is also immense (and this includes the nutrients for agriculture). You have the order of dependence in reverse. We've discovered an interesting way of turning oil into food recently, but that isn't going to be feasible forever, and in many places it never has been. American? You're probably thinking of the corn industry. Great example of an industry that has taken a marginal crop that can thrive on marginal soils with minimal labor on large tracts of land owned by a very small number of individuals. Concentrate the wealth. Livestock are in a similar position, except that they aren't a "marginal crop" even though you can rear them anywhere grass grows.

As far as meat goes I'm a big fan of integrated aquaculture. Best use of space, still get the meat and the nutrients for field crops and veggies. I don't think we should give up on pigs and chickens and cattle, but we should probably focus more on fish. I'm not trying to blow smoke up anyone's ass here, food production (not just livestock) has huge issues. Having production issues does not provide justification for claims of moral or ethical vegetarianism.

(The trouble btw Mogul, is that I'm not telling you what you "ought" to be, you're the only one making such a case. Was I unclear? It is a neutral issue for me.)