We could use just 25% of our current agriculture land and still feed the population. There is nothing in the beef & dairy, which we could not get from other sources (preferably plant-based).
The problem are agriculture subsidies. We're heavily subsidizing production of beef, mutton & dairy, which needs 75% of our agricultural lands, instead of focusing on less resource-intensive sources of protein & fats [2].
If enough people switched (and there are some positive indicators that it's already happening), maybe we could save the earth before it's too late [3].
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets [2] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-kcal-poore [3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...
The destruction of Earth & wildlife is horrendous. [4] [5] We
[4] https://xkcd.com/1338/ (compulsory) [5] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-ra...
"Humans and Big Ag Livestock Now Account for 96 Percent of Mammal Biomass ... a study ... found that, while humans account for 0.01 percent of the planet’s biomass, our activity has reduced the biomass of wild marine and terrestrial mammals by six times and the biomass of plant matter by half." [6]
100 years ago humans&cattle was just 2% of the biomass. Now it's 98%.
If all people on earth eat as much meat as an average american, we would need 5+ earths. If as much as average european, then 4+ earths would be needed. There is not enough space to support this lifestyle any longer, people. [6]
http://personal.psu.edu/afr3/blogs/siowfa12/2012/10/if-every...
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By learning to switch to plant-based diet we would be healthier, leaner, and we would be guardians of our blue not, not its destroyers.
