4 ms·

I don't think the numbers you've selected are germane to the conversation. The point of the discussion is how much land substitution there is between animal fe

I don't think the numbers you've selected are germane to the conversation. The point of the discussion is how much land substitution there is between animal feed and human feed. The USDA said that in 2013 48% of the US corn crop was used for animal feed, which translates to unbelievably vast acreage. Your numbers indicate that the corn calories are not 100% of the calories consumed by animals. https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/coexistence-corn-factsheet.pdf https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/coexisten...

jessriedel 4y ago
Well, what it tells us is that corn is a large fraction of the crops fed to animals but a significantly smaller fraction of crops fed to humans. Indeed, it looks like there are 915M acres of agricultural land in the US, and of which 89.5M (<10%) is corn, which works out to 4.7% of all US ag land being used to grow corn fed to animals. Like, obviously that much land is “vast” on an absolute scale, just like any non-trivial fraction of a nationwide number, but it doesn’t strike me as an obviously unreasonable percentage. Here’s a pretty good chart: https://www.arespectfullife.com/2018/08/05/41-of-u-s-land-is-used-for-livestock-production/ https://www.arespectfullife.com/2018/08/05/41-of-u-s-land-is... So if we accept that the pasture range cannot be used for crops, then what we are looking at is the animal feed area (which is both fodder and crops that could be eaten by humans but is eaten by animals). It’s 125M acres, I think, or ~14% of all ag land.
- thinkcontext 4y ago
  Again, I don't like the way you are using numbers. Your 915M acres figure lumps pasture into cropland, which you are using to make the corn for feed number look smaller. > So if we accept that the pasture range cannot be used for crops, then what we are looking at is the animal feed area (which is both fodder and crops that could be eaten by humans but is eaten by animals). It’s 125M acres, I think, or ~14% of all ag land. The Bloomberg article that is the source for your source, disagrees with you and categorizes the livestock feed acreage as cropland. So again, you are distorting the picture to make the animal feed number look smaller. Your own source is saying that more acres of cropland are used to feed animals than people.
  - jessriedel 4y ago
    Sounds like you are misinterpreting me because I haven’t said anything that disagrees with the Bloomberg article, and in particular I agree more land is used for crops eaten by animals than crops eaten by people. The amount of land used for pasture is definitely germane to the discussion we were having before you began commenting. See my first comment and the one I was replying to. If you continue to assume bad faith, I won’t continue the discussion.

jessriedel 4y ago

Well, what it tells us is that corn is a large fraction of the crops fed to animals but a significantly smaller fraction of crops fed to humans. Indeed, it looks like there are 915M acres of agricultural land in the US, and of which 89.5M (<10%) is corn, which works out to 4.7% of all US ag land being used to grow corn fed to animals. Like, obviously that much land is “vast” on an absolute scale, just like any non-trivial fraction of a nationwide number, but it doesn’t strike me as an obviously unreasonable percentage. Here’s a pretty good chart: https://www.arespectfullife.com/2018/08/05/41-of-u-s-land-is-used-for-livestock-production/ https://www.arespectfullife.com/2018/08/05/41-of-u-s-land-is... So if we accept that the pasture range cannot be used for crops, then what we are looking at is the animal feed area (which is both fodder and crops that could be eaten by humans but is eaten by animals). It’s 125M acres, I think, or ~14% of all ag land.

thinkcontext 4y ago
Again, I don't like the way you are using numbers. Your 915M acres figure lumps pasture into cropland, which you are using to make the corn for feed number look smaller. > So if we accept that the pasture range cannot be used for crops, then what we are looking at is the animal feed area (which is both fodder and crops that could be eaten by humans but is eaten by animals). It’s 125M acres, I think, or ~14% of all ag land. The Bloomberg article that is the source for your source, disagrees with you and categorizes the livestock feed acreage as cropland. So again, you are distorting the picture to make the animal feed number look smaller. Your own source is saying that more acres of cropland are used to feed animals than people.
- jessriedel 4y ago
  Sounds like you are misinterpreting me because I haven’t said anything that disagrees with the Bloomberg article, and in particular I agree more land is used for crops eaten by animals than crops eaten by people. The amount of land used for pasture is definitely germane to the discussion we were having before you began commenting. See my first comment and the one I was replying to. If you continue to assume bad faith, I won’t continue the discussion.