this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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I bet we could still multiply output by a decent number by replacing meat production with directly edible crops, if there was a need for it
It us wild that there is not a need. Distribution is (or was) the issue. Very sad humans refuse to feed others.
Most pasture/grazing land simply isn't suitable for crop farming, which is why we use it for pasture. Be it because of water retention or lacking topsoil or whatever, it's often the case that the only feasible way to produce food from an area is livestock farming.
The "livestock feed" section of the graph looks more than twice as big as "Food we eat", and at least some of the pasture land (much larger than both) has got to be viable, even if it mostly isn't.
Sure, and there's a very important discussion to be had about the influence livestock has on the environment. But that's a separate topic from the usefulness of pasture land for alternate purposes.