Food

Problems

The world's food-related problems include:

• Hunger & malnutrition
  • Nearly 900 million people lack calories or protein (1 in 9 people worldwide).
  • Even more people lack vitamins & minerals, even if they get enough calories & protein.
• Environmental impact
  • Habitat loss, due to agriculture using so much land.
  • Methane emissions, particularly from cows.
  • CO2 emissions from fertilizer production.
  • Pollution from pesticides and fertilizers.
• Animal cruelty
  • Particularly bad in factory farms, which are the source of most animal products.

These problems are magnified by inefficiency:

Solutions

Things that can solve all 4 problems, with the biggest impact:

• Making food more plant-based (...)( not necessarily 100% vegan, but reducing animal consumption by more than half ).
• Improving crop yields, especially in poorer countries.
• Reducing food waste.
• Not burning edible foodstuffs as biofuel.

Things that also help:

• Gardening and suburban farming.
• Regenerative farming of crops, as long as it doesn't reduce crop yields.

Things that might help in the future:

• Lab-grown meat

Things that don't help:

• Vertical farming
• More grass-fed beef
• Organic monoculture

Q&A

Unanswered

How much animal protein could be produced from pasture only, if no crops were ever fed to animals?

How much CO2 is released for every km^2 of deforestation?
How much CO2 is released for every km^2 of destroyed grasslands?

How much carbon does every km^2 of newly-grown forest sequester per year?
How much carbon does every km^2 of newly-grown grasslands sequester per year?

Bottom line

All 8 billion people could be well-fed & healthy, without destroying the planet, and without anywhere near as much harm to animals. But all of this requires both personal changes and systemic changes.