Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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I've seen a few question asked about the sustainability of the paleo diet and they all seem to argue the same thing(s). One article I read estimated that it would take half the land in the United States to grass feed our (Americans) intake of Beef. The point of methane and global warming arises too. My Question though, is if anyone has studied the sustainability of protected forestry versus pasture grazing of cattle. I love steak, don't get me wrong, but what about controlled harvesting and selling of deer, squirrel, rabbit, wild fruits and vegetables, ect in recovered/protected forests.. It just seems like people think beef is the only red meat in the world. So, does anyone know of any studies on this? or just want to tell me it's an awful idea? I just feel as though the biodiversity in a big field just isn't as awesome as in the woods.

edited Apr 30 2012 at 0:32

asked Apr 29 2012 at 23:49

josh
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i think the real problem is that there are too many of us in general. – sage_ Apr 30 2012 at 0:46

I agree with sage_; till a hundred years ago when my grandparents were born, they were with 'only' 1 to 1.5 billion people, and medical care skyrocketed it to 7 billion this year.. sustainablescale.org/images/uploaded/Population/… – TerraGuy Apr 30 2012 at 10:24

I know the data (I'm an anthropologist), but the population is not going to change. Killing 6 billion people just doesn't seem ethical to me, so I'm thinking long term sustainability. – josh Apr 30 2012 at 15:37

Heidi · Answer 1 · 2012-04-30 01:37:33Z UTC

I think large tracts of fire-managed tallgrass prairie in the Midwest with free range herds of buffalo (culled by hunting) would be much more sustainable than forest preserves of deer/elk and would provide more more quality meat per acre of habitat. Tallgrass prairie is easily the most productive biome in the United States. It puts the pastures we raise cattle on to shame. And it would supply more ecosystem services to people, plus provide a lot more biodiversity than pasture/crop land. If I won the lottery I'd start buying up farmland here in central Missouri and restore it all back to tallgrass prairie (and hell yes, I'd put buffalo on it). Of course some of the mountainous regions in the Appalacians and Ozarks couldn't support prairie and would probably be prime elk/deer forest preserves. It definitely isn't rich farmland. I personally hate that we farm marginal land for crap crops instead of keeping it in forest or wetland or restoring it to one of these things - but that is a different story.

Noah · Answer 2 · 2012-04-30 00:39:15Z UTC

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Not everywhere has overpopulation but in many places it is a problem. However don't assume your kills are organic, the overpopulation comes from the deer eating crops which aren't being raised organically. Still way better than a feed lot animal.

answered Apr 30 2012 at 0:39

Noah
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	The silliness of the "organic" designation... – Matt Apr 30 2012 at 1:26
	Look, a lot of deer out there are functionally grain fed animals, and hormone and anti-biotic contaminated because they eat from the same open feed sources as other farm animals. No they're not as bad as CAFO animals in most respects, but they're not necessarily perfect just because they know how to hop farm fences and run around frolicking. It's not unusual to gut a deer and find garbage in the digestive system. – Noah Apr 30 2012 at 20:04

Stefanie · Answer 3 · 2012-04-30 00:53:53Z UTC

I don't have any studies to refer you to, but anecdotally I can tell you that in Australia we eat kangaroo. They don't farm it, just shoot it in the wild (as far as I am aware) so I imagine this is very sustainable. It took a while for people to accept it as an 'every day' kind of meat on the dinner tables of Australian families, but now it's sold in supermarkets and is very common and widely accepted. Maybe the US needs to consider doing the same for deer.

Terry O · Answer 4 · 2012-04-30 01:42:18Z UTC

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"The point of methane and global warming arises too"

Only among the easily duped.

answered Apr 30 2012 at 1:42

Terry O
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I lol'd at that. I didn't say it was a good argument, only that people try to make it. – josh Apr 30 2012 at 2:34

The difference between a wild or grass-fed system and a grain-fed system are huge. Also helps maintain soils as opposed to depleting them. But talk about that is all silly hippie stuff, eh? – Matt Apr 30 2012 at 11:26

Worrying about the impact of cow farts on global temperatures is not only "silly hippie stuff", it's the literal definition of insanity. – Terry O Apr 30 2012 at 14:10

Matt · Answer 5 · 2012-04-30 00:02:02Z UTC

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There's massive deer overpopulation, so annual hunting season aid in keeping the population down. Nearly 200,000 deer are harvested from Illinois annually, for example. Overpopulation has occurred because so many predators have been wiped out, that's why we humans have to manage the deer herd now.

answered Apr 30 2012 at 0:02

Matt
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I totally agree, I love killing my own food. We have a overpopulation problem in Alabama as well. I can remember reading an article on Northern Mexico's paleolithic sites and that it is estimate that they harvested 49% of deer population including pregnant females and they did it sustainably for a long long time. I guess my question would have been better worded: Why isn't deer, squirrel and wild game brought up as a sustainable resource for meat? – josh Apr 30 2012 at 0:20

Really comes down to how disconnected from food people are. Even paleo folks! Unless you hunt it yourself, you're not likely going to consume (truly) wild game. – Matt Apr 30 2012 at 1:24

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The deer I'd like to kill aren't wild game. They live behind my house and eat my garden vegetables and landscaping plants and they even charge my 3.5 year-old twins sometimes when the boys get too close. The urban deer in Missouri are out of control and starting to get a little too tame! My city is considering a city bow ordinance and if it passes, I'm going to shoot deer off my back porch! – Heidi Apr 30 2012 at 1:40

I would love to be able to shoot deer from my porch, although I would be worried about stray bullets. – coffeeandcream Apr 30 2012 at 11:28

@coffeeandcream...you mean stary arrows? lol bow hunting is great! – Craig Almaguer Apr 30 2012 at 16:55

Sustainable hunting

5 Answers