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percent of the cereal harvest; animals eat whatthey find on pastureland.On a global scale, more than 40 percent ofthe annual output of wheat, rye, oats and maizegoes into animal feed. That is nearly 800 milliontonnes. Add to that another 250 million tonnes ofoilseeds, mainly soybeans. In many regions theseare grown in mass monocultures and exportedworldwide. Soybeans could be replaced by nativelegumes such as beans, peas or lucerne which alsofix nitrogen from the air and return this valuableplant nutrient to the soil. But these crops only accountfor about 20 percent of the protein used infeed in the European Union.Overall, nearly one-third of the world’s 14 billionhectares of cultivated land is used to growanimal feed. If we also count the crop by-productsthat also go into feed, such as straw and seedcakefrom soybeans, rape or grapes, three-quartersof all cropland is used to produce animal feed insome way. And a major study conducted by theUnited Nations on agricultural development estimatesthat livestock production accounts for 70percent of all agricultural land.Feed production has become separated fromanimal raising. Crops intended for feed are nowtransported long distances, often across oceans,to reach the animals. That has consequences: a lotof livestock raisers cannot dispose of the manurenearby in a safe, environmentally friendly manner.They have to ship it somewhere else to bespread on the fields. Meanwhile, the farmers whogrow the feed have to use large amounts of artificialfertilizers and pesticides to get a decent crop.In addition, grain yields have stopped risingin some places. According to a study by theUniversity of Minnesota, yields in one-quarter toone-third of the producing areas are stagnating– including in Australia, Argentina, Guatemala,Morocco, Kenya and the US states of Arkansas andTexas. In parts of the UK, in areas that producedthe highest outputs 20 years ago, yields have actuallydecreased. For wheat and rapeseed, Britishresearchers suspect that this is due to the soilGrassland and scrubland converted to cropland and pasturePercentage of natural inventory converted to cropland pastureSouthAmericaNorthAmericaPacific(developed)EuropeAsia(incl. formerSoviet Union)Africa0 2 4 6 8 10 12previously grassland or savannahdamage caused by the use of heavy machinery. Asa result, there is a continued long-term decline inorganic matter content in British soils.On a global scale, stagnating yields affectfour major grain types that produce two-thirdsof the calories: maize, rice, wheat and soybeans.Yields of these four crops are growing by only0.9 to 1.6 percent a year. The authors of theMinnesota study think this is because effortshave gone into producing livestock feed andbiofuel crops. They argue that more efficientuse of current arable land and better managementregimes across the globe might assuagethe problem, but further expansion of croplandwould bring big environmental costs in the formof biodiversity loss and higher carbon emissions.Deepak Ray, one of the study’s authors, has anothersuggestion: “Perhaps most controversially, wecan change to more plant-based diets.”0 2 4 6 8 10 12previously scrublandFAOExpandingcropland furtherwould cause moredamage to theenvironmentLand for lunchArea of land needed to produce a typical meat dish, in m 2 /personWWF3.613.383.122.230.661.360.760.382.261.960.35total area neededneeded for meatcomponentneeded for soy0.11roast pork hamburger chicken curry grilled sausageMEAT ATLAS31