Agricultural lands (lands used for agricultural production,consisting of cropland, managed grassland and permanent cropsincluding agro-forestry and bio-energy crops) occupy about 40-50% of the Earth’s land surface.
Isn't that crazy? Despite all of our efforts - genetically engineering faster-growing crops and mass-producing artificial fertilizers - we still need half of the Earth's surface to feed ourselves. Land that is untouched by humans is now generally confined to mountains, deserts, and dense forest. And that dense forest (eg. the Amazon) is being cut down to make way for still more crops (predominantly soy).
Check out this 100-mile by 300-mile piece of the American Midwest from Google Maps.
Looks pretty green, right? But when you zoom in, what do you see?
It's all a farmland checkerboard, for 500 miles in every direction. The American prairie is gone. It's all now made up of huge lots of one single crop, rather than a rich variety of grasses, fungi, shrubs, worms, birds, rodents, antelope, buffalo, etc. This is not nature, but somehow turning our entire country into this is acceptable.
We all need to eat. So how do we feed ourselves while using fewer resources and lessening the impact on the environment? The short answer is to eat lower on the food chain. Each time an animal eats food, most of the energy and nutrients stored in that food are not directly converted into more meat on that animal (ie. new food). In a sense it is wasted. So if we want to feed nearly 7 billion people, the most efficient method is for all of us to eat from the lowest rung in the food chain. That is, we should all be vegetarians.
Unfortunately, the world is moving in the opposite direction. As wealth increases, the diet shifts toward more meats and fewer vegetables. We're now mowing down the rain forests to grow corn and soy to feed to cattle to feed to us. We'd need far less land, water, energy, etc. if we just ate the soy and corn ourselves.
If the rest of the world were to eat like Americans, we'd be in a world of trouble. And yet they are trying. We're constantly industrializing our production of fruits and vegetables, dairy, poultry, pork, and beef in order to keep up with increasing demand. And the results - for the environment, our health, and the well-being of the animals - is frightening.
Below is footage from our modern farming industry. It is the logical end, when trying to feed billions with limited resources, on the cheap. It's truly awful to watch, but important to be aware of.
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