Beef — Global Issues

Consider the following (notes for stats are at the bottom of the page): More than one third of the world’s grain harvest is used to feed livestock. 1 Breaking that down a little bit 2 Almost all rice is consumed by people While corn is a staple food in many Latin American and Sub-Saharan countries, “worldwide, it is used largely as feed.” Wheat is more evenly divided between food and feed and is a staple food in many regions such as the West, China and India. The total cattle population for the world is approximately 1.3 billion occupying some 24% of the land of the planet 3 Some 70 to 80% of grain produced in the United States is fed to livestock 4 Half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow grain for cattle feed. 5 A gallon of gasoline is required to produce a pound of grain-fed beef. 6 via Beef — Global Issues.