Plants-4-Hunger: Feed People, Protect the Planet

Thank you for your crucial support of Plants-4-Hunger, our plant-based hunger relief program that feeds people in need while protecting animals, the climate, and the planet. We wanted to remind you of not only the immediate impact your support has for recipients of our projects, but also of the longer term impacts for global food security that come from prioritizing plant-based food and farming systems.

Many people are familiar with the problem of food waste, but far fewer are aware that farming animals wastes more food and calories than any other cause of food waste or loss (see images). This is because most of the calories animals consume is used to fuel their metabolism and to form bones, cartilage, feathers, fluids, and other non-edible parts. Thus, calories in do not equal calories out. For every 100 calories of grain fed to farmed animals, we get only about 40 calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs, 12 of chicken, 10 of pork, or 3 of beef. The same is true for protein; for every 100 grams of grain protein consumed by animals, we get only about 43 grams of protein in milk, 35 in eggs, 40 in chicken, 10 in pork, or 5 in beef.

Despite this massive inefficiency, less than half – only 48% – of the world’s grain harvest is eaten by humans, while a staggering 41% is fed to farmed animals. But at most, only 17-30% of those calories is turned into meat or milk. This means that 70-83% of the 41% of the world’s grains that are used as animal feed are wasted; they yield no food for humans. In total, between 28-34% of the world’s human-edible crop calories are being wasted by being fed to farmed animals.

It's for this reason that plant-based diets are far and away the most efficient—and sustainable and humane—way to feed the world. In fact, the United Nations estimates we could feed an additional 3.5 billion more people simply by growing crops for human consumption on land that is currently used to grow feed crops for farmed animals. And when researchers compared this scenario to other proposed solutions for feeding the additional ~2 billion people projected by 2050, shifting grain consumption from farmed animals to directly feed humans far outpaced the other solutions in terms of mouths fed, by hundreds of millions. 

So please know that your support of plant-based hunger relief is an important part of shaping a crucial shift toward a more plant-based food system. With the help of generous and compassionate donors like you, together we are working to build a world that is healthy, well-fed, and kind...all at the same time.

Warmly,

Ashley + the team at A Well-Fed World

Links:

• Why We Need a Plant-Based Food System to Feed the World
• Plants-4-Hunger details
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