Quality life without borders supports and advocates a nutritional plant-based diet for Kenya and Africa in the fight against poverty and malnutrition. It has been well-documented that meat production consumes a significantly larger proportion of food and resources such as grass, grain and water than a plant-based diet. In addition, meat production feeds proportionately fewer people than the same amount of energy and resources needed to raise plants for human consumption. It is estimated that between 10-20 times more people can be fed on a plant-based diet than on a meat-based diet, therefore there would be more than enough food to feed Kenya, Africa and the world.
Worldwide demand for crops is increasing rapidly due to global population growth, increased biofuel production, and changing dietary preferences. Meeting these growing demands will be a substantial challenge that will tax the capability of our food system and prompt calls to dramatically boost global crop production. However, to increase food availability, we may also consider how the world’s crops are allocated to different uses and whether it is possible to feed more people with current levels of crop production. Of particular interest are the uses of crops as animal feed and as biofuel feedstocks. Currently, 36% of the calories produced by the world’s crops are being used for animal feed, and only 12% of those feed calories ultimately contribute to the human diet (as meat and other animal products).
We find that, given the current mix of crop uses, growing food exclusively for direct human consumption could, in principle, increase available food calories by as much as 70%, which could feed an additional 4 billion people (more than the projected 2–3 billion people arriving through population growth). Even small shifts in our allocation of crops to animal feed and biofuels could significantly increase global food availability, and could be an instrumental tool in meeting the challenges of ensuring global food security.
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