Here’s a startling fact you may not know: even with the extreme weather caused by climate change, humans cultivate enough grain globally to feed twice as many people as there are on Earth today.
So, why do 820 million people not have enough food to lead a basic, healthy life? That’s one in nine people who experience hunger every day.
THE ANSWER IS ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
On average, over two billion tonnes of grain are produced worldwide each yea but at least half of that grain is fed to animals exploited by the industrial meat, egg, and dairy industries.
When we look more closely at certain types of grains (such as corn, oats, sorghum, and barley), the figures are even more shocking —with an estimated 77 percent of these crops going into animal feed.
Plus, 90 percent of all soy grown in the world is fed to chickens, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and other animals kept in factory farms and CAFOs.
What’s most disturbing is many of these grains are cultivated in countries where children are hungry or even starving to death. In fact, 82 percent of the world’s hungry children live in countries that produce grains intended for use as animal feed, and those animals are killed to satisfy tastes in the global north.
The problem with beef production
Beef production creates scarcely two percent of the world’s calories, and yet approximately 60 percent of the world’s agricultural land is occupied by beef production. What a waste!
Whilst industrially produced meat comes at an enormous cost to the environment (and a lethal toll for billions of animals) the problem with beef production is particularly pronounced. Every day worldwide, industrially farmed cows:
- drink over 170 billion litres of water (and it takes over 15,000 litres of water to produce just one kilogram of beef)
- require 61 billion kilograms of feed
- drive deforestation because beef production is so land-hungry
- drives climate change, because beef is the biggest food-related emitter of climate-changing gases
In a planet ravaged by the effects of climate change —where water and food security are real and ever-present pressures—why are we wasting precious natural resources on such unsustainable agricultural systems?
Future food and water security
The United Nations describes food security as, “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy life.”
With more than 3.1 million children dying from hunger and malnutrition every year, it’s clear that humanity must change our priorities, in order to actually provide food and water security for all.
According to the UN Water For Life project: “Major changes in policy and management, across the entire agricultural production chain, are needed to ensure best use of available water resources in meeting growing demands for food…”
The complex poverty cycle
Animal agriculture is directly responsible for many factors resulting in human hunger, starvation, and death—all hallmarks that form part of the poverty cycle.
Unfortunately, the solution isn’t as simple as offering grain intended for animals to those humans in need. Multi-billion-dollar corporate influences also prevent social change from happening quickly. According to leading researcher Dr Richard Oppenlander, a very small group of multinational conglomerates maintains a monopoly over 65 percent of the world’s seeds and grains. These same companies are also responsible for controlling 80 percent of all slaughtered, processed and packed animal products in the world, which presents clear vested interests.
“This then drives how global resources are being used (land, water, rainforests, oceans, atmosphere, biodiversity), how money is spent, and how policies are determined,” Dr Oppenlander explains.
“The earth can produce enough for everyone’s need. But not enough for everyone’s greed.” – Phillip Wollen, 2012
