Thirty percent of the earth’s entire land surface – a massive 70% of all agricultural land - is used for rearing farmed animals.

Much of this is grazing land that would otherwise host a natural habitat such as the valuable rainforest, but crops are also grown specifically as animal feed. In fact, a third of the world’s land suitable for growing crops is used to produce feed for farmed animals*8.

Livestock farming is essentially inefficient as mammals in particular are inefficient converters of feed to meat. A vast percentage of gross energy (89-97%) and protein (80-96%) contained in the cereal/ grain fed to animals is not converted into edible fat and protein*7. Cattle require approximately 7kg of grain in order to generate 1 kg of beef and pigs require 4kg grain for 1 kg of pork*10.

Livestock farming can lead to overgrazing causing soil erosion, desertification and deforestation*10. Twenty percent of the world’s grazing land has already been designated as degraded due to the rearing of animals for their meat*8.

Forests are one of the world’s most valuable resources, providing a home for approximately 300 million people (indigenous and non-indigenous) along with numerous unique plant and animal species. Over 1.5 billion people depend upon the forests, whether this be their livelihood, fuel wood, medicinal plants or food*28. Tropical rainforests are thought to hold over half of the Earth’s plant and animal species.

Our forests are being destroyed at a rapid rate. Between 2000 and 2005, 90 million acres of forest were destroyed and the World Resource Institute estimates that 39% of the world’s remaining frontier forest is at risk*28. Today’s main threats include clearing land for agriculture and overgrazing as well as the more widely publicised commercial logging, energy development and mining.

Deforestation increases greenhouse gas emissions by releasing carbon previously stored in the trees. It is also a major driver in the loss of biodiversity – a pressing concern when one considers the fact that just a few species of livestock now account for about 20% of total terrestrial animal biomass*8.

Rearing animals away from precious habitats offers no easy solutions. It is becoming more common for cattle to be denied the opportunity to graze by moving them directly into feedlots after being weaned. Intensive feeding on a diet consisting mainly of concentrates has been shown to be an inefficient way of producing dietary proteins*7. In order to supply meat producers with cheap animal feed, large areas of tropical forests have been cleared*28.

It has been calculated that someone living on a vegetarian diet in the UK requires less than half the area of land to grow their food than someone following a conventional diet. A vegetarian population could farm less intensively and still have space to increase production of bio-fuel crops.