Meat: Global Hunger

There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire human population. So why are more than 840 million people still going hungry?

It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh. According to the USDA and the United Nations, using an acre of land to raise cattle for slaughter yields 20 pounds of usable protein. That same acre would yield 356 pounds of protein if soybeans were grown instead"”more than 17 times as much!
Producing the grain that is used to feed farmed animals requires vast amounts of water. It takes about 300 gallons of water per day to produce food for a vegan, and more than 4,000 gallons of water per day to produce food for a meat-eater. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.

Much of the world’s food is fed to animals, so that more affluent people can eat meat. Worldwide, in 2004, about 50 billion land animals were eaten by humans.

About 10 kg of food is fed to cows to produce 1 kg of beef. (The ratio of food to meat for other types of meat is less, but still represents major inefficiency.)

The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food more than enough to feed the Earth’s entire human population.

For example, more than 50% of the corn and oats grown in the US is fed to livestock, not to people.

Much plant food grown in third world countries is sold to developed countries to produce cheaper meats.

http://www.earthoria.com/global-hunger-the-more-meat-we-eat-the-fewer-people-we-can-feed.html
http://www.meat.org/
http://www.vegetarian-society.org/WorldHunger