The above graphic was taken from a recently published article, “A hard look at corn economics — and world hunger.” As you can see, corn is not a “foodstuff,” but “industrial material.” And the majority of the crop becomes animal feed.

In a world where 842 million people are malnourished, should we really be using our limited land space and depleting resources (like water) on raising and feeding livestock? Consider:

“Take corn, and add in other giant crops that basically just feed animals—crops like soybeans, barley, hay, sorghum—and two-thirds of U.S. farmland goes to animal feed. […] The trick would be convincing the country—and other countries that import animal feed from the U.S.—to go vegan. […] Would it be enough to feed the 10 billion people the United Nations projects as global population by 2100? ‘We would have more land available for the 10 billion than they would know what to do with,’ says [Bruce] Babcock. But we don’t. Thank markets. ‘That’s not what consumers want,’says Babcock. ‘As they get more money, they want to eat meat.'” — Dan Weissmann, “A Hard Look at Corn Economics — And World Hunger”