A meat-free life, but a large ecological footprint: this is not nature conservation, according to the expert from Debrecen – Debrecen news, Debrecen news | Debrecen and Hajdú-Bihar county news
A meat-free life, but a large ecological footprint: this is not nature conservation, according to the expert from Debrecen
Debrecen – We protect nature better if we consume the values provided by the landscape and eat exotic foods and fruits less often. Keeping the ratio is important – this is how nature conservation specialist Ádám Lenner sees it.
Nature conservation engineer Ádám Lenner, PhD student at the University of Debrecen, lives on the Szamárhát ranch of the Tiszatáj Public Foundation with nearly five hundred gray cattle and a hundred buffalo. We reported on his special friendship with Kobold and Monszter, the two buffaloes, and Félix, the gray cattle, earlier on Dehir.
About life on the farm Kobold on Facebook page and On TikTok also reports regularly.
– Our goal is to show our work: agricultural environmental management, nature conservation, gene preservation, the culture of shepherds – emphasized the specialist.
They also want to pass on values to the visitors: how to live in harmony with nature and help the species living around us.
We can transform our environment into a nature-friendly one
Ádám reported that the number of followers has increased in the last month and a half, people are looking for green solutions.
– We deal with species conservation, we examine the soil, what kind of vegetation can be connected to it, what native species to plant, because many insects can eat their leaves. Three hundred species of insects can live on an oak tree, while, say, twelve species live on an acacia tree. The food chain will start by itself, and it will be more comfortable for us if we only look at the mosquitoes. If bats live near us, there are fewer mosquito bites – he briefly summarized his efforts.
Ádám is also an enthusiastic member of the Future of Debrecen team, and together with other members, he represents the conservationist.
“In the western part of the city.” they form a protective forestsa Future of Debrecen had an important role in ensuring that these forest strips consist of indigenous species.
Fortunately, maples, elms and lindens will be planted, so they not only comply with environmental protection aspects by producing oxygen and filtering dust: being native species, they will provide breeding, hiding and feeding places for many species, he explained.
He emphasized that these trees require little water, grow moderately fast, and are much better suited to the development of our climate in the long term.
The specialist spoke, he not only likes to talk about nature conservation, he believes in nature conservation in action.
Bat rods were placed in the Lencztelep in the spring, different types are already placed around Békás Lake and the stadium. They have already visited schools and kindergartens, where they also brought dens.
– The zeroth step is to discuss whether there should be ten B-type dens in the area, but if no one places them, then there was really no point in the discussion.
The Green Working Group – Ádám is also a member – recently became one Bird-residential park promenade also, where the people of Debrecen can get to know the nature conservation tools at its various stations and the animal species that occupy and use them. The special feature of the promenade is that it is a permanent exhibition and a virtual guided nature walk.
Does the world need cattle farming?
Ádám explained that it is often heard how bad cattle farming is because of climate change. However, those who say this miss out on important things: what kind of animal husbandry is involved, and where the animal lives, because this livestock is suitable for the desert, the prairie, the pampas, it has an important role in the cycle.
– One of the buffalo’s essential elements is water, the public foundation also keeps buffalo to manage the wetlands, to make the contiguous reed and mat areas into a mosaic through their trampling, chewing and lying down – he explained.
In this way, the buffaloes also create more diverse living communities, since the waterfowl can not only place their nests in the reeds, but can also obtain food in the open water areas.
– When the trees of the tropical rain forest are cut down so that cattle can graze there, it is a big problem. We, on the other hand, carry out extensive animal husbandry, the animal sees more of the sky than the barn roof.
He lives in harmony with nature. You can see that life is bubbling with goblins as well. They have a pool that they share with thirty frogs. This pit could not support so many frogs, they are only viable because of the two buffaloes there. They lie down in the water, the frogs climb on them and catch the flies and mosquitoes that attack the buffaloes. This is a loose but nicely presented relationship of symbiosis.
@lenneradam #goblins #buffalo #goblin #goblin #thee #into you ♬ original sound – Kobold – Lak
Many bugs and insects develop in the cow pie: they are a source of food for swallows and many other birds, such as crows, they spread the pie with their beaks and pick out worms. This also favors the lawn, because the grass would rot under the several kilo cake.
If we look at it this way, cattle breeding is completely part of the system. It also matters that in the case of extensive animal husbandry, a cow lives twenty years, so it is not like when overbred species are gutted and live 4-5 years.
– That’s why you should consult with specialists and collect them. I have had positive experiences with vegetarians who were initially opposed to keeping animals of any kind, but were open-minded. One of them eventually became a biologist and wrote an article in which he explains which animal husbandry bothers him as a vegetarian, and which has a place in the system. Extremes never lead to good. If we remove the cattle from the system, but we want to try different species, then we have to solve the tidying up of the area with a tractor. This, in turn, burns fossil fuel. It doesn’t matter if the livestock eats the grass and emits some methane – but this methane would be released anyway when the grass decomposes – and then it becomes part of a cycle, or we use petroleum that has been “seasoned” in tractors over hundreds of thousands of years – he explained.
He also pointed out that
in some natural animal husbandry, as part of ecological activities, cattle can also be used to graze the place of saline lakes.
These vegetation easily overgrow, so the protected shorebirds etc. disappear. If the livestock grazed it and the rains started in the spring, then these small lakes appear, along with the rare, protected animals.
If the livestock is removed from the system, the mats and reeds quickly grow in, so the birds have no feeding and breeding medium either. If this occurs completely in the distribution area of the species – on a European level – then the species will die out because it cannot reproduce and cannot find food. That is why it is necessary to consider and formulate precisely when we are for something and against something.
Cattle are not (only) responsible for environmental damage
“It doesn’t hurt to know where good food comes from when we eat it, and to accept that human nutrition involves the destruction of certain living things.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to be able to handle it in the right way, where we humans are located in the ecosystem – Ádám pointed out, adding that in this case too, the measure is the point.
– It is not good for the environment if we eat 60 kilos of beef a year, like the Americans. By the way, Hungarians consume more than three kilos.
He added that real nature and environmental protection is primarily what the landscape provides. Always think about the landscape. If he gives us beef, then let’s eat it, but he doesn’t give us avocado, for example, so we shouldn’t eat that much.
– Dates, figs, kiwis, and pomegranates are still available in Debrecen’s catchment area. In Tiszavasvári, a woodcarving uncle covered his veranda with kiwis and harvests 200-300 kiwis every year. Our climate has changed, it is no longer so terribly cold that it freezes. Figs are also easily ripening in our country. Pineapple and avocado, however, do not add to the landscape.
The specialist pointed out that we will not be environmentalists if we do not eat meat, but we do eat tropical fruits. Then it’s more of an ethical attitude if someone can’t stand having an animal slaughtered for him. This is an individual decision.
but it is not nature and environmental protection if one consumes plants that have a larger ecological footprint than if one consumes the values provided by the landscape.
Ádám said that it is also in the interest of a livestock farmer to provide the best environment for livestock, because that is when they grow best, give the most milk, and reach slaughter weight on time.
– When we are bombarded with images of the terrible conditions animals are not kept in, it is within the European Union, because there are very serious rules regarding farm animals.
If they found a colony where they do not keep livestock, but only torture the animals, they must be liquidated. On larger farms, it is also mandatory to employ an animal welfare officer.
He pointed out that he created the Kobold page to show reality, the golden mean.
– I was at a green conference where you couldn’t eat meat, but they offered me lunch fruits. Why is it bad if I eat chicken that is raised here a few kilometers from me, and the feed also comes from the area? Adam asked.
He added that the agrarian is also suffering because there are many more of us than the area could support. Houses with gardens would be there for people to garden. Artificial grass, lawn bricks, paving stones, and concrete reduce the amount of green space in cities. Fortunately, more and more people are interested in green solutions, and they are trying to draw attention to them.
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