Cassidy et al. / Environmental Research Letters
Shifting crops grown for animal feed and biofuel to food for direct human consumption can feed an additional 4 billion people with existing cropland, a study says.
Posted on 08/06/2013 9:11:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The lab-grown burger taste-tested Monday in London is billed as one way to avert a looming food crisis by freeing up the agricultural resources used to feed billions of cattle each year. Another way to avert the crisis is to stop eating animal products altogether, according to a recent study.
In fact, "we find that doing a complete radical shift away from grain-fed animals, and stop producing biofuels, that you can increase calorie availability enough for 4 billion people," Emily Cassidy, a researcher at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, told NBC News.
She and colleagues examined 41 major crops grown around the world, which account for more than 90 percent of global crop production, to find out how much food is being produced and how it is being used.
They found that 36 percent of the calories produced are used for animal feed. Of those, 12 percent wend their way to the human diet as meat and animal products. Another 4 percent of human-edible calories are used to produce biofuels.
Growing all those crops for direct human consumption instead increases available food calories by up to 70 percent, Cassidy and colleagues report in the Aug. 1 issue of Environmental Research Letters.
When those additional calories are translated to the number of people who can be fed a 2,700-calorie-a-day diet, the team's math shows an additional 4 billion people can be fed with food grown on existing farmland.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
The LEar Jet Leftists will always enjoy meat eggs and butter while they sit in air conditioned comfort planning how the rest of us will live.
And the rest of us will not enjoy the finest technology and services the world has to offer. They will.
We will be forced to eat beans — and swelter.
I love that guy.
Eggs are about the cheapest & easiest protein that can be produced. Store easily- easy to transport & have lots of uses.
Milk is necessary, also. Without Vit D, health for all involved is at risk.
These fools would be serving Soylent Green if they had heir way.
More targets for the REVOLUTION. They are ID’ing themselves early for us.
These people can pound sand. They want us all to eat soybeans.
In the short term, maybe so; in the long term, they'd be much happier if we stopped eating altogether. If that doesn't make clear sense, I believe it may help to bear in mind the measure of Marxist dictators is mass murder. Thus far, Mao is in the lead.
The earth can provide for as many of God's children as he sends here, and easily at that.
I mean, how was God to KNOW, that we'd thrive and prosper?
I bet he feels pretty silly...
I believe. I know the truth....And I think I'll celebrate that tonight with a fat t-bone.
Amen !
Liberals idea of paradise = zero people.
Conservatives idea of paradise = every square inch of the land surface of the planet filled with nothing but people and cattle. Some may love the idea of so many people you can’t take 5 steps without bumping into someone. I hate the thought of it.
Huh?
See the above scripture written thousands of years ago which foretold this "anti-meat" thing.
They can die in the street as far as i’m cncerned!
Same old crap from the same old crapheads.
Actuall, IMO, this is just another global warming fake that would push people into becoming vegans and earn millions for a few unscrupulous politicians.
+1.
Humanity will always be able to feed itself - right up to the moment it becomes socialist.
The USSR suffered from ‘drought’ for 70 years. This drought ran along political boundaries and ended when the Berlin Wall fell.
And don’t get me started on the weather in Zimbabwe.
“And don’t get me started on the weather in Zimbabwe.”
a.k.a The (former) breadbasket of Africa.
No, that was sarcasm.
“Which is the craziest?”
Why stop there. A Modest Proposal will wipeout abortion. Mothers could just give birth and sell their infants to the upper crust of society.
I tried it...It was terrible and I was bloated.
I went back to my old meat and potato diet of the 50's. The difference...it fills you up.
I eat "0" snacks but binge occasionally....like a whole pumpkin pie in two days!!
We need protein. These all vegie diets are cr** and you're always hungry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.