SciFi author Sarah Hoyt, who grew up in small town Portugal, wrote this recently about the globalists who want to rule our lives: That's not how any of that works.

What they missed, of course, that any rural kid knows is that you don’t feed livestock on what humans can eat. Instead, you feed the stuff humans can’t eat, the stuff left after processing corn, or wheat or whatever to… well, you feed just about anything to pigs. But you can feed wheat straw to cows. And frankly, you can pasturage cows on land where you can’t grow anything. They’re not like goats, that you can feed on three tin cans and an old log, but they still can digest hard vegetable matter humans can’t eat.

One could say the same for sheep and goats. 

Indeed, the reason for China not eating Beef is partly Buddhism but partly because the oxen were used to plow and pull wagons, not for meat. And unlike Europe etc. they didn't have mountainous areas or marginal land for herders to raise cattle, which could then be exchanged for grain etc. as was done in Europe, where the Germanic tribes sold cattle to the Romans because it was hard to plow and grow crops before more modern plows were available. 

So why all the hysteria about beef? Steak is seen as a rich man's food. 

But of course, the modern hamburger is what took over the world: Cheap, tasty and filling, and a good source of protein. Along with cheap chicken and processed food full of preservatives to slow down deterioration to prolong the shelf life so that less food is thrown out. 

So Asia is no longer full of small people periodically starving in famines, but has fairly large and often obese people. 

But of course beef is popular but not the main source of animal protein, which is fish: both fished and grown in fish farms

And don't forget Chickens! Yes you can grow them in your back yard, but the cheap chicken meat (decimated by bird flu) is grown en masse in buildings: and this is one of the big revolutions in the world, what the greens lament as factory farms that mainly use one type of chicken (monoculture). But how else do you feed the growing urban  population with cheap meat (not to mention cheap eggs)  

Yes, you can raise them in your back yard (I read Tolkien did this during WWII so his kids could have eggs to eat) but with bird flu, some places have banned this practice.

And don't forget the pigs.

Beef actually comes in number four as a global source of protein, after fish, chickens and pigs.

So there I am watching a video about making the world more sustainable.

The usual stuff.

Eat less beef .

sort of like this?

but instead of saying eat chicken or fish, she insists we eat fake meat,

but if people say that fake meat tastes like cardboard, well, maybe if we mix fake meat with beef we can persuade people to eat it. 

Hello. one can bring a horse to water, but one can't make him drink.

One of the problems of feeding people in famines is that they will refuse food they are unfamiliar with or object to. Pork in Muslim countries, shell fish in some African areas, and bugs in the USA (except for the survivalists who eat grasshoppers).

So what do we eat here in the Philippines (aside from organic brown rice three times a day)?

Actually we eat fish or eggs, and the meat is pork or chicken. 

For ten years we rarely ate beef, but after swine flu hit local farms we are now eating beef in a stew three times a week. 

The reason for eating more beef? African Swine Flu killed a lot of local pigs so the price and availability of pork is a problem.

The real problem to feed more people is to stop agricultural diseases. 

Illness is a big danger: African swine flu (which got here via smuggled contaminated food even though there was a strict quarantine to imports from countries with this problem).

We are off the migration flights so avian flu should not be a problem but now and then we get reports of isolated cases: which would mean no chicken, and no eggs, and no quail eggs, and no balut since that is made from duck eggs.

Of course, cattle (and water buffalo) are not immune: there is hoof and mouth disease epidemic in nearby Indonesia.

Right now I am reading about the diseases and nutritional deaths   at the time of the Philippine revolution against Spain, and one disease that contributed to the hunger was  rinderpest which meant the waterbuffalo who pulled the plows died off and local farmers couldn't grow rice.

so they imported rice to prevent starvation, but the imported rice was polished white rice that contributed to an outbreak of beriberi.

This would not happen nowadays: because in the last 20 years our area is now transitioning to hand-plows (large rototillers that use diesel) and the water buffalo are being transitioned to provide milk to local markets.

Waterbuffalo yogurt anyone?

And I am always bemused at these experts who say using factory made fake meat (to make someone rich) is the answer, when other forms of protein are widely available. Tofu, yogurt, and peanut butter are a good source of protein, as are yeast products like Marmite, and of course don't forget fish, which can be farmed.

But yes they do sell hamburgers now in town, all over the place, and it's quite cheap.

of course, she is talking about sophisticated upper middle class types, not the taxi drivers in Manila who eat a Jollibee hamburger at the end of the day (and if he can't afford Jollibee, kiosks sell them even cheaper).