More than 820 million people worldwide suffer from the consequences of hunger. And that, although there is enough food for every human being on this earth. So if theoretically there is enough food for everyone, why are so many people around the world still suffering from famine?
One of the main reasons for this lies in the production of animal-based foods such as meat, dairy products and eggs. Although there is enough plant food to feed everyone on earth, most of the plant food grown is not used as a food source for starving people, but as fodder for animals. And even in third world countries.
In order to produce meat and other animal products such as milk, cheese and eggs, farm animals need feed such as wheat, corn, soybeans and barley. However, feed production is not the only problematic aspect of livestock farming. Keeping them requires enormous additional land, water and energy resources. In addition, energy is still required to transport the animals to the slaughterhouse at the end of their life and to process their bodies. So eating a beef steak is estimated to use 160 times more land, water and fuel resources than eating a vegetarian meal.