i think we are in agreement that the methodology for quantifying agricultural impacts is flawed

that’s not true. cattle hardly get any of the global soy crop, and most of what is fed to animals is the byproduct from making soybean oil. cattle are fed about 2% of global soy iirc and only 7% of all the soy that is fed to any animal is whole soybeans. the rest is basically industrial waste.

if you follow the citations they call that green water and break it down

why does cottonseed, which would otherwise go to waste, get counted against cattle, when that is a conservative of resources?

this is such a great resource to understand why footprints are ridiculous metrics and how interconnected our industrial agriculture systems are.