Land
About 75% less farmland if the world went vegan
75%Less agricultural land on a vegan world diet
About 80% of the world’s farmland is used for farm animals and their feed[2], yet they supply only about 18% of our calories and 37% of our protein[3]. If the world went vegan, we would need about 75% less farmland[1], and all that land could go back to forests and wildlife[1][5]. If you cared about nature, you would stop eating animals.
What the evidence says
The main points first. Every claim is tied to a source below.
Our World in Data · How is the world’s land used? · Hannah Ritchie & Max Roser
Farm animals take up about 80% of farmland but provide only a small share of our calories
To eat animals, we first have to feed them plants[3]. About 80% of farmland goes to grazing and growing feed[1], but meat and dairy give back only about 18% of our calories and 37% of our protein[2]. Cow flesh returns only a few percent of the protein that went into the animal[3], so eating the crops ourselves is orders of magnitude more efficient. We don’t have to harm or eat animals at all.
Read full article →
Our World in Data · if the world ate plants, 4.1 billion hectares down to 1 billion
If the world ate vegan, we’d need about 75% less farmland
Using Poore and Nemecek’s data, Our World in Data estimates that if everyone switched to a plant-based diet, the world would use about 75% less farmland[2][3], going from about 4.1 billion hectares to about 1 billion[2]. The land freed up would be roughly the size of North America and Brazil combined, and it could go back to forest and wild habitat[2].
Read full article →
Our World in Data · Environmental impacts of food production
By weight, 94% of mammals other than humans are farm animals, and only 6% are wild
If you weighed every mammal on Earth except humans, about 94% of the total would be cows, pigs, and other farm animals, according to Our World in Data’s figures from Bar-On, Phillips, and Milo[1][2]. Farm animals outweigh wild mammals about 15 to 1[1][2], and counting only land mammals, they make up 97%[1]. Turning most of the world’s farmland over to farm animals has crowded out every other species.
Read full article →Articles
A vegan world would need about 75% less farmland
Farm animals use about 80% of the world’s farmland but supply only about 18% of its calories. If everyone ate plants, farmland would shrink from about 4.1 billion hectares to about 1 billion, and the land left over could go back to forest and wild habitat.
Read full article →
Sources
Papers and datasets. Each card keeps its caveats, including small samples and single-animal cases.
[1]Our World in Data · Review
If everyone ate plant-based, the world would need about 75% less farmland
According to Our World in Data, if everyone switched to a plant-based diet, the world would use about 75% less land for farming.
[2]Our World in Data · Review
About 80% of the world’s farmland is used for meat and dairy
About 80% of the world’s agricultural land is used for meat and dairy, counting both pasture and the land that grows feed crops.
[3]Science · Meta-analysis
Avoiding meat and dairy is the biggest way to cut your food’s footprint
Poore and Nemecek found that meat and dairy provide only about 18% of the world’s calories and about 37% of its protein, yet use the vast majority of farmland and cause about 60% of farming’s greenhouse gas emissions. Avoiding them is the single biggest way to cut your food’s impact.
[4]Environmental Research Letters, 2013 · Observational
Growing crops for people instead of farm animals would feed more people per hectare
Cassidy and colleagues found that shifting crop calories from animal feed to people would increase the number of people fed per hectare. A large share of the world’s crop calories never reach anyone’s plate because they’re fed to animals first.
[5]Nature, 2018 · Review
Food can’t stay within the planet’s limits without a shift to plant-based diets
Springmann and colleagues found that without a shift toward plant-based diets, the food system can’t stay within the planet’s limits for land use and climate, even with improvements in how food is produced. Fully plant-based diets would cut global land use by roughly 70%.