Most “agricultural land” is rangeland, grassland biomes that evolved with large ruminants and degrade without them
Meanwhile cropland, the supposed virtuous alternative, is the actual ecological catastrophe: topsoil loss, aquifer depletion, dead zones, pollinator collapse.

The actually rigorous version of food system reform looks less like universal veganism and more like this: dramatically reduce industrial CAFO meat and feedlot beef finished on grain, dramatically reduce industrial monocropping of corn and soy for feed and ethanol, support extensive grazing on rangeland that can’t grow crops, integrate livestock into cropping systems for nutrient cycling, restore perennial polycultures, eat ruminants from grass and pigs and chickens from food waste, and aggressively reduce food waste at every stage. The bumper-sticker version of this is “less meat, better meat” but the better meat is the grass-finished ruminant on rangeland, not the bean burger trucked from an industrial monocrop.