Can sustainable agriculture feed the world and look after the planet? The answer is Yes as this 2016 report shows. In any case, polluting industrial farming has to change simply because it's not sustainable.

Anyone who is serious about 'feeding the world' has to remember that almost half of all crops grown, as well as loads of fish from the sea, go to feeding animals which will then be killed for humans to eat. In fact, one-third of fish caught in the world's oceans goes into animal feed, says a 2008 report. These are very inefficient and unsustainable ways to make food and is one reason why many people choose to become vegetarians.

over 30 million metric tons

Take a look at these five points:

• rearing cattle for meat uses about three fifths of all farmland but yields less than 5 percent of the protein people eat
• to produce 1 kilogram (just over 2 pounds) of beef needs more than 15,000 litres (almost 4,000 US gallons) of water
• 1 kilogram of potatoes needs just 255 litres of water
• 40 percent of wheat, rye, oats, and corn produced around the world is fed to animals plus 250 million tons of soybeans
• nearly four times as much antibiotics are used in intensive livestock farming as are used to treat infections in humans. Result: many dangerous bacteria have become resistant to almost all antibiotics

Source: Worldwatch Institute 2014

Antibiotics have been heavily used in livestock — particularly poultry — to control infections caused by overcrowding and insanitary conditions and because they make animals grow faster

Colistin is the last resort antibiotic treatment for life-threatening infections caused by certain strains of bacteria such as Escherichia coli, common in peoples' guts. But now, some of these dangerous bacteria have become resistant even to that. This means infections caused by such bacteria can't be treated. There are several more such bacteria like Clostridium difficile and MRSA which are now also nearly untreatable.

And another thing for you to think about: hunger is caused by poverty and inequality, not scarcity. The world already produces more than one and a half times enough food to feed everyone on the planet. (Huffington Post)

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. --Albert Einstein