How Meat Consumption Is Causing Mass Wildlife Extinction

A report from the World Wildlife Fund revealed that 60 per cent of global biodiversity loss is down to meat consumption, and this is only projected to worsen.

The livestock industry uses up approximately a third of the land on Earth. It decimates forests and grasslands, reducing unique ecosystems to grazing land for animals or land to cultivate their feed.

Ninety-seven per cent of the world’s soya crops are used to feed animals, not humans. Soya production would need to increase by a staggering 80 per cent by 2050 to cope with the projected global demand for meat, which could decimate the habitats of the world’s remaining wildlife populations.

The production of meat is extremely inefficient: it can take up to 16 kilograms of grain to produce just 1 kilogram of meat. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population.

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Tags: #wildlife #biodiversity #extinction