Farming the strike
A lot of famers play cricket. having nothing better to do in the summer. When left with a less able batsman choices have to be made to eke out those last few runs. Choosing not to expose the weak to predatory fast bowlers and to cling to one’s crease and allow a partner to perish when a single is ill timed.
Farming itself involves making choices - killing plants we deem to be weeds and saving ones we can eat, sending male animals for meat and cossetting their sisters as they are able to propagate their highly selected breed.
This is becoming less acceptable as our society moves further from nature and the land, despite claiming the opposite. There in a conundrum here as the systems that used to exist on traditional farms, and are being proposed for regenerative faming, rely on livestock. Yet veganism rejects this on ethical and sustainable grounds. Much of the following is lifted but think it goes beyond some of the surface views.
Livestock play a vital role in sustainability, so great care must be taken when making comparisons, as 1kg of beans is completely different to 1kg of beef in the nutrients it provides. Human nutritionists will tell you that animal-based products – be they eggs, milk or meat – have a vital role to play as part of a healthy, balanced diet due to the different composition and density of nutrients compared with plant-based foods when consumed together. Issues in human health and diet are about balance and processing, and that is true with animal-based and plant-based products. The sustainability of different meats is complex, with trade-offs. For example, chicken results in less carbon pollution than beef per kilogram of product, but is less nutrient dense. So, when compared at a nutrient content level, beef produces less carbon than chicken.
The beef source is also vital. Does it come from a Scottish hillside on a diet of grass and rocks or from a Brazilian feedlot? Once you consider the wider aspects of sustainability, it is clear that this cannot be solved by simply removing meat from our diets. Indeed, for many aspects this would be detrimental.
So where to start with something as complex as sustainability in relation to food production and diet? The starting point should be driven by the most valuable resource on farm – soil. Soil needs organic matter, and one of the best methods for its delivery is returning livestock manure to support arable crop production. This will not only improve crops yields, but also reduce fossil fuel use, as we will need less inorganic fertiliser for arable systems.
Another argument used for the removal of livestock is competition with human edible food and land use efficiency. However, livestock can be additive and not detractive, if raised on land not suitable for growing crops or as a user of waste-streams from the food industry .Our requirements for protein could all come from plants, livestock, or a sensible combination of the two. A vegan diet may use land less efficiently than an omnivorous diet, as livestock can use by-products and land not suitable for growing crops. Also, the combination of plant and livestock protein in the diet will increase the use of not only that protein, but also the minerals and vitamins acquired from the more balanced diet. However, we need to consume all protein in moderation as, on average, we currently eat more than is good for us or the planet, and we certainly need to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.
Cricket is woven into the heritage of British life. With its images of village greens, teas and post match beer in the village pub. Grazing livestock is more than foodstuff, it is similarly interwoven with our image of the countryside and is an element of the biophillia that can be gained from the great outdoors. When one thinks of Constable's 'Flatford mill' front and center is the horse but most of the canvas is taken by verdant meadows and the cattle and sheep that have produced them.
Our world culture and diet would be poorer without livestock, livestock farmers and objurate batsmen.