Agriculture is the biggest driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss. Most agricultural land is used to produce animal-based products. What we eat can have a bigger impact on land use than how much we eat. Reducing our reliance on animal agriculture can increase efficiency and food security by freeing up land to grow crops for direct human consumption.
Sources
[1] Alexander, P., C. Brown, A. Arneth, et al. (2016): Human appropriation of land for food: The role of diet. Global Environmental Change. 41, p.88–98. Doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.09.005
[2] Poore, J. & T. Nemecek (2018): Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360(6392), 987–992. Doi:10.1126/science.aaq0216
[3] Willett, W., J. Rockström, B. Loken, et al. (2019): Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems.
[4] Fraanje, W. & T. Garnett. (2020): Soy: food, feed, and land use change. (Foodsource: Building Blocks). Food Climate Research Network, University of Oxford.
[5] Hannah Ritchie (2021): If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares. Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets [10.11.2023]
[6] Umweltbundesamt (2017): Quantifying the land footprint of Germany and the EU using a hybrid accounting model. Dessau-Roßlau. S. 39
[7] IPCC (2019): Climate Change and Land. An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. IPCC.
[8] Hannah, R. (2021): If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares.Our World In Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets [10.11.2023]
[9] Shepon, A., G. Eshel, E. Noor, et al. (2018): The opportunity cost of animal based diets exceeds all food losses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201713820. doi:10.1073/pnas.1713820115
[10] Peters, C. J., J. Picardy, A. F. Darrouzet-Nardi, et al. (2016): Carrying capacity of U.S. agricultural land: Ten diet scenarios. Elem Sci Anth 4(0), University of California Press, 000116. doi:10.12952/journal.elementa.000116
[11] Gerten, D., V. Heck, J. Jägermeyr, et al. (2020): Feeding ten billion people is possible within four terrestrial planetary boundaries. Nature Sustainability 3(3), 200–208. doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0465-1
[12] Chatzimpiros, P. & S. Harchaoui (2023): Sevenfold variation in global feeding capacity depends on diets, land use and nitrogen management. Nature Food doi:10.1038/s43016-023-00741-w
[13] Ritchie. H. (2021): What are the carbon opportunity costs of our food? Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/carbon-opportunity-costs-food. [Accessed: 10.11.2023]
[14] Hayek, M. N., H. Harwatt, W. J. Ripple, et al. (2021): The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land. Nature Sustainability 4(1), 21–24. doi:10.1038/s41893-020-00603-4
[15] Cassidy, E. S., P. C. West, J. S. Gerber, et al. (2013): Redefining agricultural yields: from tons to people nourished per hectare. Environmental Research Letters 8(3), 034015. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015
[16] FAO (2023): Food Balances (2010-). Available at: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FBS [10.11.2023]
[17] Hannah Ritchie & May Roser (2024): Half of the worlds’habitable land is used for agriculture. Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture [Accessed: 15.05.2024]
Frequently asked questions
What are the key facts about food and land use?
Animal-based foods use about 80% of the world’s agricultural land but provide only 37% of protein and 18% of calories. This includes 2.9 billion hectares of pasture plus cropland used to grow animal feed. A fully plant-based diet would need 76% less agricultural land — freeing an area roughly the size of Africa. Current farming can sustain about 3.4 billion people within safe planetary boundaries; plant-based production could feed up to 17 billion.
How much land does animal agriculture use, and how much food does it provide?
Animal-based foods use about 80% of the world’s agricultural land — 2.9 billion hectares of pasture plus cropland for feed — yet provide only 37% of protein and 18% of calories. If everyone adopted a fully plant-based diet, agriculture would need 76% less land, freeing an area roughly the size of Africa.
Could we feed more people with plant-based diets?
Yes. The world’s cropland could feed far more people if used directly rather than routed through animals. Current farming can sustain about 3.4 billion people within safe planetary boundaries, but fully plant-based food production could feed up to 17 billion — comfortably more than the projected global population.