sutainable mixed farmA big survey of sustainable farming around the world shows that it works. Forget polluting industrial farming! Going for natural pest control and fertiliser can push up crop yields on poor farms across the world by 70 per cent or more [1]. These results show that claims that only genetically modified crops can feed the world is wrong.

Anyone who is serious about 'feeding the world' has to remember that almost half of all crops grown, as well as loads of fish from the sea, go to feeding animals which will then be killed for humans to eat. This is a very inefficient way to make food and why many people choose to become vegetarians. Take a look at these four points:

  • For cattle raised in feedlots, you need between 7 and 16 pounds of grain to add 1 pound of live weight to an animal [2, 3]
  • To produce 1 pound of beef takes an about 2,500 gallons of water. You only need one hundredth of that (25 gallons) to grow 1 pound of wheat [4]
  • Russian livestock (animals used in farming, mostly for eating) now eat three times as much grain as Russian citizens [5]
  • Seventy per cent the grain produced in the U.S. and 40 per cent of the world's supply is fed to livestock - mostly cattle


So you see: "We can already feed the world. We just don't want to."[3]. Why do you think that is? And what do you think a solution could be?

Quote: "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." --Albert Einstein

 

1. New Scientist, 3/2/2001, 3.
2. WWF/Center for a New American Dream. This is a great site and well worth a visit!
3. Jeremy Hardy, quoted in New Scientist, 21/11/98, 62, letters.
4. Eating to Save the Environment, Animal Protection Institute.
5. New Scientist, 21/11/98, 62, Rosalind Riley letter.