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Are most food crops in the US grown to feed animals?

Wednesday, March 31, 2021
By Gus Fisher
YES

Two-thirds of U.S. crop calories are used for animal feed.

In 2013, University of Minnesota researchers calculated that 67% of crop calories in the U.S. fed animals while 27% fed people. Globally, 36% of crop calories fed animals while 55% fed people. For every 100 calories of crops, animal agriculture yields 12 calories of chicken, 10 calories of pork and 3 calories of beef. This remains true for protein calories, where the conversions are 100 to 40, 10, and 5, respectively.

If land currently used to grow animal feed was instead used to grow crops for people to eat, it could sustain 1 billion more people in the U.S. and 4 billion more worldwide.

In addition to croplands, animal agriculture uses two billion hectares of grasslands for grazing. In 2017, Food and Agriculture Organization researchers found that 35% of these grasslands were suitable for growing crops.

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