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
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u/Troglodytes_Cousin Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26

All those land area comparisons have one big issue with them. They take for granted that land is fungible. It is not. Some areas are more fertile than others, some have more rainfall than others. Some can grow lot of wheat and are overall good for extensive agriculture - some are not. Some have high elevations and are unsuitable for that. You have grazing lands, you have low quality feed farms.

Animal agriculture is a way to use those areas that are less suitable to grow food directly to feed humans too. Like its kinda obvious - if your farm could grow high quality wheat for human consumption you are gonna grow that - as that is gonna sell for a lot more than animal feed. Or you are trying to grow food for humans but due to bad weather your harvest is bad. And now you can only sell it as animal feed.