The Humane Party’s Economic Transition Team (ETT) has completed its report comparing vegan-organic agriculture and animal-based agriculture on an acre per acre basis. Using past Humane Party reports as well as USDA, FAO and animal agriculture industry data, we have compiled a series of tables analyzing the needs of the over 9.624 billion land animals that were raised in the United States in 2017.
It was concluded that:
- Vegan-organic agriculture can be 4,198% more productive than animal-based agriculture in the amount of food produced per acre.
- Grain-fed animals (9.5323 billion in the United States from 2017) required 241.63 billion pounds of grains that could be fed directly to the human population.
- Animal-based agriculture’s grain-fed animals (chickens, chickens for eggs, pigs and turkeys) yield a net loss of 163.95 billion pounds of food.
Animal agriculture requires vast amounts of land for space and manure dispersal (cows/all types) and land to grow their feed (grain or hay fed animals). Production per acre for animals is on average 770 lbs./acre where the field crops surveyed can produce 32,331 lbs./acre, a 4,197% better production per acre.
The hay or pasture that cows are eating/grazing can not be directly fed to humans, however it is important to mention that all lands used to pasture cows and/or raise the hay could be used for growing crops directly for human consumption or left to re-wild in the case of some very marginal forested pastured areas and where much needed wildlife corridors are necessary. Specifically, alfalfa, timothy hay or clover lands are extraordinarily fertile for growing vegetable crops as they are nitrogen-fixing forages and soil accumulators (meaning they bring up nutrients by their extensive root systems).
We are at a critical junction in our agricultural history. The industrial raising of animals for food is an archaic and unethical practice. These beings are suffering every day in horrendous ways. While some states are making the effort to allow them larger cages or further access, it is the opinion of the Humane Party that the solutions do not require finding more efficient ways to raise animals or give them a better life before slaughtering, but how to best transition farmers to completely grow plant-based crops. It is this end that the Economic Transition Team of the Humane Party wishes to realize.
Our mission at the ETT is to end 100% the exploitation of all animals within the United States and its economy. We will not stop until we have succeeded.
The Humane Herald 