Energy-intensive farming!

[AE-NMidlands]

Your argument doesn't show the whole picture, this was an injured cow, the rest walking off by themselves.
Helicopters buzz up & down alpine valley's all day long winter & summer, likely this was a return run & good practise (keeping sharp) maybe a return run from taking winter prep gear up, or maintenance kit, anything.

You could question therefore in another thread why they don't walk the solar panel installs up to the lake themselves, as the added carbon footprint doesn't help any (etc).

We also rarely question why a hill walker is airlifted off a mountain (again injury, or sometimes human idiocy) & that one will be called out for the purpose, a farmer may simply telephone in & say I need help can I have 5 minutes of airtime, none of that is clear.
It's not like whole herds are flown too & fro & disingenuous to suggest by the title & still frame to imply that may be the case.

Rather than misleadingly title the thread do some groundwork if this heli-lift rankles you so much & tell us just how intensive a cow in summer grazing (usually walked up & down) & likely overwintered in a traditional small herd alpine byre is compared to our own modern industrialised farming with its energy intense concrete yard scraping, & slurry tanks, daily milk tanker pick up type operation.

It was just an attempt at a light-hearted comment for the title.
I know that it was a lame animal, and that most of them walk up and down. I have been camping in Davos when the cattle were being brought in by (HEP-powered) train and walked up to the alps through the town. (But it may have been the end of the season when they were coming down.) I have had many holidays camping or hutting in the Swiss alps and the Pyrenees, accessed by train - or replacement bus in S France -and with nothing but shanks' pony otherwise.

When equiment is flown in to mountain locations it certainly adds to the carbon footprint of the development. I hope that one day there will be such a severe and universal carbon tax that it automatically gets costed in to all projects as part of the transport costs, or perhaps that carbon budgets are a mandatory part of any development.

Re mountain rescue helicopters, we have thought for a long time that National Parks are too accessible and suffering quite badly as a consequence: you should get yourself in, get yourself out (with any waste that you have generated) and if you can't manage that then you shouldn't be there. Eagles and vultures need carcasses to feed on... (smiley wink)
A

I agree that feedlot farming is an environmental and carbon catastrophe, and that grass-fed animals may well be carbon negative. And that we should be eating less but better meat (and that home- or locally-produced veg are a lot more sustainable than ridiculous things like out-off-season green beans flown in from Peru, or flowers from Kenya.)

[Stinsy]

C’mon guys.

Destroying the Amazon rain forest to produce beef for burgers, producing hormone enhanced beef in feed lots, feeding GM soy to said cattle that are antibiotic supported all in the pursuit of fast food

Beef production internationally is an industrial process.

It is not sustainable.

Beef can be produced sustainably and responsibly - it will require a massive change in behaviour. As will anything we need to do to achieve any semblance of responsible resource use.

When I hike through sheep/cow fields I get a good feeling of the environment in its natural state. There seems to be room for a diverse plant and animal ecosystem to exist with the “product”.

Monoculture grain or oilseed crops on the other hand….

[Mr Gus]

Glad to hear it AE, if not presented properly the place will go as off the rails as facecloth, so we really need context ..however it did spark lively debate, so well done.
Whilst we are talking meat though guys, found this on Netflix about get diet, & well worth watching all the way through, has enough humour, the meat vs get night time erections piece was funny & insightful.
It features the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger & Lewis hamilton, ..a lot more arnie, & picks up on the paid for confusion that nowadays takes the place of when "fags are good for you" era by the fast food industry, if nothing else it is a decent encouragement to keep paring back the meat & up the veggies & pulses.

(My daughter & I love a meal / snack of lentils, wife has that perverse, "hated them as a kid won't eat them now" mentality, off considering how we both fought for our daughter ((non feeder baby thru to toddler tied in with her deafness)) & won food battles turning her into an adventurous eater of everything, this documentary has given fresh impetus & understanding to her nurse sensibilities, will be experimenting with the instantpot this week as it's easier to change when the whole family is involved)

Also on youtube

& Then fact checker view of it for better insight & some querying / debunking (next on my watchlist)

[Ken]

I have a friend who flies Chinooks and when doing exercise on Salisbury plane and on the ground a farmer came running up to him. My friend thought he was going to get a telling off about noise or something but the farmer asked him if it was possible to rescue one of his cows in a ditch which he did. It didnt really cost anything as these pilots are constantly doing exercises of this kind of nature to keep current.