I was delightfully surprised to find this article on nutrition. The surprise came because it comes from an MIT Economist named Otto Scharmer. For those familiar with the discipline of systems thinking you might recognize his name from the book titled "Theory U".
What was surprising was to see Dr. Scharmer's background and links to the emerging issue of nutrition,soil quality and our agricultural production system. While I don't agree with everything he says about livestock impact, he does clarify the growing scope of the nutrition issue, including its affordability.
Finally, I should clarify why I am not supportive of his statements regarding livestock. From our perspective, agricultural systems that are the most productive in terms of carbon sequestration, involve perennial poly cultures, or in other words lots of trees and grasses. Livestock are by far the most economical way to use these systems, convert sunlight into food, and sequester the most carbon. When these systems make use of a full holistic life cycle assessment, the picture regarding livestock impact can change dramatically.
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