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one calorie of meat requires 6 calories of crops.
ah, but much of the crops that are fed to animals are the byproducts of our own agricultural processes. by feeding them to cattle we get more calories than we would, since we won't eat, for instance, cottonseeds and corn stalks.
That's some of it but not the majority. Our demand for meat is far far greater than byproducts can supply. And we really don't need the extra calories from meat. We could grow far more food by repurposing that land.
https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/5c433cba-a635-48ab-b875-3b5530480e89.webp
this seems to say (near the bottom there) that basically everything a cow eats (52 of 54 units or there about) is either grazed grass or crop residues, with only like 2 or 3 of those units (so about 4-6%, in round numbers) comes from crops grown to feed them. i don't really know the dietary composition of a chicken or swine, but, cattle, at least, get essentially no direct crops at all.
We could grow far more food by repurposing that land.
if that were the case, why aren't we? it seems there must be a good reason that in the over half decade since this paper's publication, surely we could have revolutionized our food production. instead, even though veganism saw a steady rise from before the publication of that paper until 2020, it's been in decline since then. somehow i don't think that paper captured the whole scope of our agricultural system.
People don't go hungry because no one's figured out how to produce enough food. People go hungry because of our current economic system. All I'm trying to show is that it is possible to feed a vegan world, and it would actually be easier. Actually creating a world where everyone is fed is a separate topic entirely and for people much smarter than myself.
it is possible to feed a vegan world, and it would actually be easier
it's even easier to feed a world with no living creatures. that doesn't make it desirable
We can live in a world where we hurt animals for food. Or we can live in a world where we don't hurt animals for food.
