{"id":5570,"date":"2015-10-16T09:40:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T13:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=5570"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:16:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:16:39","slug":"how-to-make-meat-production-more-sustainable-start-with-corn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2015\/10\/16\/how-to-make-meat-production-more-sustainable-start-with-corn\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make meat production more sustainable? Start with corn."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fao\"<\/a>
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day<\/a> each year on October 16th.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s World Food Day, which promotes awareness of the planet\u2019s most challenging food issues, including eradicating global hunger. All food production depends on environmental health, but food production itself can harm the planet.<\/p>\n

So to address hunger and increase food security, we\u2019ll need to address the environmental impacts of food production and how the food choices we make every day affect the planet.<\/p>\n

These choices affect the stability of the climate, the availability of clean drinking water and running rivers, and the persistence of native habitats and the wildlife they house.<\/p>\n

No matter our political or cultural differences when it comes to food, there\u2019s one trend that is clear: across the globe, we are making the choice to eat more meat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While promoting the consumption of veggie burgers over animal-based protein to reduce environmental impacts is important, the bottom line is that we need to make beef, pork, and poultry\u00a0production more sustainable than it is now.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an easy task, but there\u2019s some low-hanging fruit: 40 million acres of U.S. land is used to grow corn for animal feed \u2013 and if we improve the way we grow that corn<\/a>, we\u2019ll reduce emissions, protect water quality, improve soil health and increase drought resilience.<\/p>\n

\"shutterstock_232187422\"<\/a>More and more meat<\/strong><\/p>\n

The global demand for meat is increasing nearly 2 percent a year, and according to the United Nations, this demand isn\u2019t slowing down anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Meat\u2019s reliance on corn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meat production starts with and relies upon corn production. The world\u2019s largest economies have two things in common \u2013 the majority of corn grown is used for animal feed. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. corn \u2013 covering 40 million acres \u2013 goes towards feed grains, and in China this figure is 70 percent.<\/p>\n

Some additional kernels to consider:<\/p>\n