"As a society, we struggle to satisfy the global demand for food."
My vegan friends claim that this is only true because we waste so much food/water to feed livestock for meat.
Even if thats not true, humans waste a lot of food. Hell, my local supermarket throws out enough food each day to feed me for a month. (Ok ok not really true because it wouldn't last a month, but quantity-wise...)
And there is the whole 'bio-fuel' movement where basically people grow 'bio-fuel' in places where there was food growing earlier cause they get subsidies for doing so. How to account for such 'lost' food sources?
Biofuel is crazy. It produced massive ecological and economical damage, ruining supply chains for generations ahead. Who and why ever thought it was a good idea?
Your vegan friend has a good point. Production of animal-based foods typically use 2-10 times more feed (and consequently more land etc) than what would be needed to feed humans directly.
The article cites the often-cited FAO claim [1] that 70% more food production is needed by year 2050. But researchers are now also increasingly agreeing that dietary choices should be considered -- FAO's "70% increase" claim builds on their projections of future human diets.
For a recent example of this alternative view, see Tilman and Clark (2014) [2]. In summary: Current western diets are harmful for the planet and for human health, so let's also consider changing our diets.
>> As a society, we struggle to satisfy the global demand for food.
> My vegan friends claim that this is only true because we waste so much food/water to feed livestock for meat.
It's not true at all. There's plenty of food in the world, there's plenty of hungry people in the world, unfortunately, they don't tend to be in the same places, and food is perishable, and people don't work for free. It's a transportation and economic problem, not a food shortage problem. It'll probably be solved by better ways to produce locally because shipping food to the starving people isn't going to suddenly start working.
My vegan friends claim that this is only true because we waste so much food/water to feed livestock for meat.
Even if thats not true, humans waste a lot of food. Hell, my local supermarket throws out enough food each day to feed me for a month. (Ok ok not really true because it wouldn't last a month, but quantity-wise...)