The food vs. feed competition is the competition for resources, such as land, between growing crops for human consumption and growing crops for animals.[1][2]

In many countries, livestock graze from the land which mostly cannot be used for growing human-edible crops, as seen by the fact that there is three times as much agricultural land[3] as arable land.[4]

The term food vs. feed competition is also used in the livestock industry to compare crop inputs (including space required) vs. protein outputs. For example, crops for people to eat require less land and other resources than crops for animals to eat so people can eat them.[5]

In a circular agriculture system, wasted food (no longer edible by humans) can be provided to livestock, which in turn feed humans.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Manceron, Stéphane; Ben-Ari, Tamara; Dumas, Patrice (July 2014). "Feeding proteins to livestock: Global land use and food vs. feed competition". OCL. 21 (4): D408. doi:10.1051/ocl/2014020. ISSN 2272-6977.
  2. ^ Steinfeld, H.; Opio, C. (2010). "The availability of feeds for livestock: Competition with human consumption in present world" (PDF). Advances in Animal Biosciences. 1 (2): 421. doi:10.1017/S2040470010000488.
  3. ^ "Agricultural land (% of land area) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  4. ^ "Arable land (% of land area) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  5. ^ "More Fuel for the Food/Feed Debate". UN FAO. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  6. ^ The role of farm animals in a circular food system by Hannah Van Zanten