97
votes
Accepted
Do beef farmed pastures net remove carbon emissions?
No.
This is not really an infographic that is truthful. It is 'anecdotal evidence' evidence for one farm, very probably not true for that very farm, and in any case a misleading oversimplification.
...
- 43.9k
67
votes
Are 99% of US beef cattle given steroids to promote faster growth?
TLDR: roughly true, although the overall percentage of US feedlot cattle given such implants is around 90%, not 99%, according to 2013 USDA data, although it's higher in some US regions, for some ...
- 56.9k
65
votes
Do male chicks get ground up on most farms in the industralized world?
The early to mid 1900s saw the division of chickens into breeds that produced lots of eggs versus breeds that produced lots of tasty meat. Males of the first type (egg layers) obviously don't lay eggs,...
- 14.4k
42
votes
Does it take 16 kg of CO2 equivalent to make two hamburgers?
Does it take 16 kg of CO2e to make two hamburgers? It seems an exaggeration.
That's about right. For example, per Got Beef? Here’s What Your Hamburger Is Doing To The Climate, it takes 60 kilograms ...
- 14.4k
28
votes
Do male chicks get ground up on most farms in the industralized world?
The Wikipedia page on chick culling provides a good overview.
Note that quoted claims confuse the general practice of culling with the specific practice of maceration. Culling also includes other ...
- 139k
14
votes
Accepted
Were modern wheat varieties specifically selected because it was less nutritious?
Were modern wheat varieties specifically selected because it was less nutritious?
tl;dr: Surely not.
How were wheat cultivars bred?
For what did breeders select?
Was the nutritional value ...
- 43.9k
13
votes
Do beef farmed pastures net remove carbon emissions?
Some of it is close to factual data for one particular farm in Nova Scotia.
The infographic was based on calculations from this Wild Mountain Farm. The calculations were made with a calculator that ...
- 2,785
13
votes
Do beef farmed pastures net remove carbon emissions?
Here's something nobody ever seems to ask: What's the alternative? Surely we aren't picturing a pastureland that would have been paved over with asphalt, if not for this heroic rancher? Certainly in a ...
- 1,588
10
votes
Do most people have no idea where their food comes from or how it’s made?
Yes, Viva!, a UK-based pro-vegan charity conducted a survey in 2016.
Here is their press release dated four days before the cited article.
Note, this was not a scientific study, published in a peer-...
- 139k
10
votes
Are hogs scalded alive in slaughterhouses?
Given that millions of hogs are slaughtered in the United States every month, it is entirely possible that workers do observe pigs being scalded alive. However, to the extent that USDA regulations are ...
- 7,164
10
votes
Does the Earth only have 60 years of harvests before the top soil is lost?
If she said it in 2014, she wasn't the first.
For example, in a 2012 interview, Professor John Crawford of the University of Sydney said ,
A rough calculation of current rates of soil ...
- 103k
9
votes
Does the Earth only have 60 years of harvests before the top soil is lost?
This posted article from May 2019 discusses the claim and its origins.
The idea that there are only 100 harvests left is just a fantasy
Despite dozens of headlines quoting these predictions, ...
- 199
8
votes
Accepted
Does the USDA burn food every week?
It's impossible to disprove every false statement by finding a source that explicitly refutes it.
But here's how USDA food "destruction" proceeds, from a recent example:
Iconic product of ...
- 56.9k
8
votes
Does the United States throw wheat in the ocean to keep the prices high?
I did not find information about wheat, but I found this link which talks about cherries:
US Government Orders Farmers To Destroy 30 Million Pounds Of Their Own Crop
...
“The food pantry ...
8
votes
Accepted
Did the Neolithic Revolution increase infant mortality rates?
Probably someone can give a more detailed answer, but skeletal data seems to support this increase; form Bocquet-Appel, Science, 2011:
During the economic transition from foraging to farming, the ...
- 56.9k
7
votes
Does the United States throw wheat in the ocean to keep the prices high?
Wheat from the United States that was given as a gift to India was dumped into the ocean:
According to Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, Volume 133, Issue 12
a) Out of 1444 tonnes. of gift ...
- 103k
7
votes
Do yaks get shaved?
According to Milady Standard Cosmetology, page 534:
Yak. This strong fiber comes from the domestic ox found in the mountains of Tibet and Central Asia. Yak hair is shaved and processed and used ...
- 103k
7
votes
Is animal agriculture responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than transportation?
Probably yes, but the comparison is fraught with challenges.
Geographical Scope
Selection of geographical area for analysis is the largest confounding factor here. Some areas of the world have more ...
- 171
6
votes
Accepted
Does organic cotton use less water than conventional cotton?
The claim that organic cotton farming uses less water than conventional modes of farming appears to be the scientific consensus. For instance, Grose (2009) states that
[farmers] in Israel have ...
- 9,251
6
votes
Accepted
Are farm bankruptcies in the US "at highs not seen since the Great Depression"?
False if referring to Chapter 12 Bankruptcies
It's unclear what the original claim is about "Farm bankruptcies" is meant to mean. My immediate reaction is that this person is talking about ...
- 532
5
votes
Accepted
Is 86% of the food fed to livestock unfit for human consumption, and is most of it byproducts of crops grown for human consumption?
This is a 2017 study by Mottet et Al
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312201313_Livestock_On_our_plates_or_eating_at_our_table_A_new_analysis_of_the_feedfood_debate
The 87% is simply that only ...
- 4,488
5
votes
Do beef farmed pastures net remove carbon emissions?
First, it's important to mention that not all carbon is created equal. That is, some greenhouse gases are much worse than others. But in the interest of the claim, let's look at carbon, only.*
With ...
- 151
5
votes
Is animal agriculture responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than transportation?
The data is different for just the US:
The primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States
are:
Transportation (28.9 percent of 2017 greenhouse gas emissions) – The
...
- 1,254
5
votes
Has selective breeding increased the sugar level of fruits?
Yes.
Temperate Fruit Crops in Warm Climates at page 178:
A general objective in most breeding programs is higher sugar content
See Survey of Food and Nutrition Research in the United States, which ...
- 103k
4
votes
Is whitewashing trees a good practice?
TL;DR: I did not find any scientific consensus on this subject.
The claim:
According to this 2014 Statesmen article,
Horticulturists from the University of California and Sunset magazine still ...
4
votes
Accepted
Did increased global methane emissions in 2017 come from cattle farming?
You ask ‘Was there a surge in global methane emissions in 2017? Was it caused by cattle farming, fossil fuel consumption or other sources?’ The first partial quotes (below) are dated 2020:
“The ...
- 156
3
votes
Accepted
Is animal agriculture the leading cause of species extinction?
No. According to Princeton University, Deforestation is the leading cause of species extinction.
Evidence to date suggests that deforestation is currently, and is
projected to continue to be, the ...
- 15.7k
3
votes
Are 99% of US beef cattle given steroids to promote faster growth?
Zoetis produces a range of products under the Synovex name including:
Synovex C for calves (estradiol, progesterone)
Synovex Feedlot for the feedlot (trenbolone, estradiol)
Synovex Grass for grazing (...
- 2,418
3
votes
Accepted
Have greenhouse gas emissions from Australian red meat production fallen nearly 60% since 2005?
The MLA report mentions CSIRO, which, per Wikipedia, stands for "The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [...]" and is "an Australian Government agency ...
- 9,912
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible