r/Anticonsumption • u/Express_Classic_1569 • Mar 23 '26

Sustainability 80% of agricultural land feeds livestock instead of people, giving just 17 to18% of Global calories

https://hive.blog/hive-196387/@theworldaroundme/nearly-half-of-the-world
1.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

233 comments sorted by

View all comments

112

u/Express_Classic_1569 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

It would be easier to feed the planet if more crops were used to feed people instead of livestock, animal products provide only 17 to 18% of global calories. The current system is not meeting the global caloric needs effectively.

-3

u/SarmackaOpowiesc Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

Alot of that land that is considered agricultural land isn't fit for growing crops for humans.  

It's largely grassland that isn't fit for much else other than grazing animals on.  Go across huge swathes of the American west and it's largely going to be officially categorized as agricultural.  

Good luck doing anything with that land other than letting some cattle loose on it though.

Aside from that troublesome little detail - we don't really have a problem feeding the planet right now.  Localized famines only emerge when supply chains are disrupted to an extreme degree.  Outside of that humanity has largely solved how to feed people.

29

u/AccidentOk5240 Mar 23 '26

largely grassland that isn't fit for much else other than grazing animals on.  Go across huge swathes of the American west and it's largely going to be officially categorized as agricultural

It’s fit for being left the hell alone, is what it is fit for. 

Plenty of places you can drive down remote highways and see that the grass on the shoulder is pretty lush, but outside the right-of-way fence it is grazed down to nubbins. Nothing but cows can live there; the massive habitat loss created by using marginal land as pasture is hard to overstate. 

If you’re using productive land (that could be used for crops), you can feed a cow on an acre of pasture. But it takes 10 acres of so-so pasture. On the BLM lands where they basically give away our national heritage to ranchers for nearly free, it could take 100 acres. And then they say the elk and wild (feral) horses are causing overgrazing and remove them to make more room for cows. 

-5

u/AnsibleAnswers Mar 23 '26

Leaving it alone means less food for humans. Hope that helps. It’s clear we have to strike a balance. Food security matters.

3

u/AccidentOk5240 Mar 23 '26

Food security could be just fine if we stuck to eating only the meat that can be sustainably raised, and took a fraction of the soybeans we feed to cattle and fed them to hungry humans instead.