LA Times Reports: If America Went Vegan, It Could Feed 390 Million More People

According to new research published in the Los Angeles Times, we could feed all 327 million Americans, plus 390 million more people, simply by going vegan.

The USDA found that more than 41 million Americans risk going hungry at some point during the year, but this doesn’t have to be. A report published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that if U.S. farmers took all the land currently used to raise animals for food and instead used it to grow plants, we could sustain more than twice as many people as we do now.

Researchers determined that if the land required to produce animal products were used for a “nutritionally equivalent combination of potatoes, peanuts, soybeans, and other edible plants, the total food available would increase by 120 percent.

Additionally, researchers noted that by going vegan the country would be in better health, greatly reduce medical costs, and drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions.

But this isn’t the first time veganism has been suggested to combat hunger.

A 2015 Huffington Post piece reports that UN officials believe going plant-based could alleviate world hunger:
Today half the world’s agricultural land is used for livestock farming, which is far less efficient for feeding people—and worse for the environment—than producing grain, fruit and vegetables for direct human consumption.
Raising animals for food, including land for grazing and growing feed crops, currently uses over one-third of the earth’s landmass. Imagine if this space were used to grow edible plants! To put it simply, we could help not only the billions of animals killed each year for food but the 815 million people who do not have enough to eat.

Cows, pigs, chickens, and fish raised and killed for food are subjected to unthinkable cruelties: tiny, filthy cages; horrific mutilations; and bloody, violent slaughter.

Sounds terrible, right? Watch.


By choosing a compassionate vegan diet you can help end world hunger and spare animals a lifetime of misery.

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