What the numbers mean
Food has a footprint far beyond the fields we eat from.
Our World in Data estimates that grazing and growing animal feed together use about four-fifths of agricultural land. It also calculates that meat, dairy and farmed fish supply about 17% of global calories.
Read the sourcesFollow the feed
Some farmland grows food for people. Some grows animal feed; some is grazing land. Counting only fields of human food leaves much of farming out of the picture. The 80% estimate combines grazing and feed land. It refers to farmland, and livestock also provide non-food products such as leather. [1]
Land and calories answer different questions
Calories measure energy. Protein, vitamins and minerals tell us other things about food. FAO-linked research also finds that livestock eat grass, crop leftovers and other material people cannot digest. Comparing area and calories helps explain farming's footprint, while leaving out parts of the picture such as nutrition, livelihoods and local conditions. [3]
Pasture cannot always become a crop field
The same research distinguishes land suitable for crops from grazing land where crops cannot be grown. Replacing every pasture with wheat is not a realistic scenario. To understand the choices available in one place, we need to know what its land can support and how people there use it. [3]