{"id":103198,"date":"2025-08-28T11:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/103198\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:55:09","slug":"we-already-grow-enough-food-but-much-of-it-never-reaches-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/103198\/","title":{"rendered":"We already grow enough food, but much of it never reaches people"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world already grows more food than we need. In 2020, global croplands produced enough calories to feed 15 billion people. Yet only half of those calories actually reached people\u2019s plates. The rest vanished into animal feed, fuel tanks, or other uses.<\/p>\n

The issue isn\u2019t about having more land \u2013 it\u2019s about how we use it. A new analysis finds that while total food production has risen quickly, the calories actually available for people have grown much more slowly.<\/p>\n


\n \"EarthSnap\"\/
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Between 2010 and 2020, total calories from crops<\/a> rose nearly 24 percent. But calories people could actually eat rose only 16 percent.<\/p>\n

The biggest culprit is meat, especially beef. It takes 33 calories of feed to make one calorie of beef. Chicken, eggs, and milk are far more efficient. <\/p>\n

Researchers estimate that if wealthier countries cut back on beef and ate more chicken instead, the calories saved could feed around 850 million people.<\/p>\n

Growing fuel cuts into food supply<\/p>\n

In 2020, more than five percent of the world\u2019s cropland calories went into ethanol and biodiesel. Palm oil and maize dominated this shift. <\/p>\n

Biofuels help with energy goals, but they cut into the food supply. Land that could grow meals for families instead grows fuel for cars.<\/p>\n

The problem is bigger than it looks. Crops<\/a> used for feed at least give some calories back through meat, milk, or eggs. Biofuels give nothing back. <\/p>\n

Once a crop becomes fuel, it\u2019s gone from the food system completely. That means fewer calories on plates and more pressure on farmland.<\/p>\n

With global hunger still widespread, using cropland to grow fuel creates a direct conflict between energy security and food security. <\/p>\n

It forces a tough question: should fertile land grow food for people\u2019s stomachs or fuel for engines? The answer will shape how we balance climate goals with the urgent need to feed billions.<\/p>\n

Countries use food differently<\/p>\n

How calories are used looks very different depending on where you live. In the\u00a0United States, only about 23 percent of cropland calories ended up as food.\u00a0Brazil\u00a0fared only slightly better, at 29 percent.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0India, nearly 80 percent went directly into diets, much of it through grains and dairy. India\u2019s efficiency comes partly because milk has a higher feed-to-food return than beef.<\/p>\n

Globally, croplands produce enough calories to feed 12 people per hectare. After losses, that number drops to six. The gap is striking: we are growing enough food, but choices<\/a> about meat, fuel, and trade decide who gets fed.<\/p>\n

The environmental cost<\/p>\n

Calories lost to feed and fuel aren\u2019t just a food problem, they\u2019re an environmental one too. Growing food already drives deforestation, drains freshwater supplies, and produces nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

Beef sits at the center of this issue. It wastes the most calories and creates the most carbon. In comparison, chicken, eggs, and dairy use fewer resources and return more calories to people. <\/p>\n

Even small dietary changes matter. Replacing some beef with other proteins could lower emissions and make more food available at the same time. That means fewer forests cleared, less water consumed, and fewer tons of carbon in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about eliminating meat entirely but about shifting choices<\/a>. The data shows that changing what\u2019s on our plates can directly reduce environmental damage while improving food security. What we eat shapes not only our health, but the planet\u2019s future too.<\/p>\n

Food security grows from choices<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an important reminder that the problems we face in feeding 8 billion people today \u2013 and even in the future with a few billion more \u2013 are not about biophysical limits; it\u2019s not that we can\u2019t produce enough calories,\u201d said\u00a0Hannah Ritchie\u00a0of the University of Oxford<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s about distribution and human choices on what we do with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calories alone don\u2019t tell the whole story. Nutrition depends on proteins and micronutrients too. But the numbers already reveal how much potential is lost in the way crops are used.<\/p>\n

Global data from the\u00a0Food and Agriculture Organization<\/a> of the United Nations\u00a0continues to track these trends. And healthy diet frameworks like the\u00a0EAT\u2013Lancet Commission\u00a0show how eating differently can feed more people and ease pressure on the planet.<\/p>\n

The study is published in the journal EarthArXiv<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n

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