It is widely acknowledged that the food choices we make have a tremendous effect on our environment. The production of some foods creates higher amounts of green house gases (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide), uses more water, and has a higher impact on land degradation and loss of biodiversity than other foods.

The impact of food production on the environment

• In June 2010 the United Nations Environmental Program published a report stating that “a substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.¹
• By 2050, the world’s population will grow to 9.2 billion.²
• Some estimate that within the next two generations, the world must raise food production by 110%.³ What’s more, this increase in production needs to be achieved with a decreasing impact on natural resources and the environment.^4,5
  
   

Food production in Australia

• About 1/4 of Australia’s land area is mostly desert and not used commercially.⁶
• More than half of our land is used for agriculture (62%), and most of that is used for livestock grazing (57%).⁷
• In 1996/7, Australia had 120 million sheep and 27 million cattle (beef and dairy), making Australian agriculture predominantly livestock based. It has been stated that Australia has the highest ratio of cattle-to-people and second highest of sheep-to-people in the world.⁸

 References

¹UNEP, 2010, Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production: Priority Products and Materials.United Nations Environmental Programme.
²PMSEIC (2010). Australia and Food Security in a Changing World - Can we feed ourselves and help feed the world in the future? Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Canberra, Australia October 2010, page 1.
³Julian Cribb & Associates Discussion Paper. The Coming Famine: Constraints to global food production in an overpopulated, affluent and resource-scarce world: the scientific challenge of the era. http://www.apo.org.au/linkboard/results.chtml?filename_num=190252
⁴Williams J et al Aust Sci 2008; 29: 31-34. (A more detailed version is available at: http://www.wentworthgroup.org/uploads/Can%20We%20Secure%20Our%20Food%20Whilst%20Maintaining%20Our%20Environment%20250610.pdf)
⁵Williams et al, 2009. ACIAR Partners, March-June. Available at: Keating BA at al Crop Pasture Sci 2010; 61: 269-278.
⁶Australian Natural Resources Atlas. www.anra.gov.au/topics/land/landuse/index.html - accessed Dec 2010
⁷Australian Natural Resources Atlas. www.anra.gov.au/topics/land/landuse/index.html - accessed Dec 2010
⁸http://www.tourism.australia.com/content/News%20Centre/factsheets/outback/agricultural.pdf