GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor from reader Bill McLellan in response to multiple letters about dairy industry research.
Much has recently been written in letters to the editor regarding the recent government support for dairy industry research. Advocates for the dairy industry and dairy products point out the benefit to the economy, the reduction of environmental damage caused by dairy animals, and the quality and cost of the products compared to non-dairy.
The hidden side of the dairy industry is that livestock production requires huge swathes of arable land to produce feed, and that land would produce far more food if it was not tied up in livestock feed. This is something the dairy industry does not want to talk about. Rather than face this inarguable fact, pointless exercises in reducing methane continue at the research level. Risk-averse farmers would rather stick with livestock in preference to developing their skills in planting other crops. The sad truth is that livestock produces food by converting large quantities of food energy through their innards to produce a relatively small amount of food energy for human consumption.
As regards the non-dairy alternatives? True, we do not grow almonds in Ontario, but we do produce other grains that are converted into nutritious milk and cheese alternatives.
Maybe we should sink our scarce research dollars into crops of the future rather than subsidize research into the unstable meat and dairy industry.
Bill McLellan
