A very compelling article.

Scott

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What if they consume grain at the same rate as we do here?

Today, the U.S. consumes 14.8 percent of the world’s grain supply, but has only 4.6 percent of the world’s population. In this case, though, the U.S. produces more grain than virtually any other country. The United States produces 364 million metric tons of grain cereal per year.

Only China produces more, at 426 million metric tons. India is in third place, producing 233 million metric tons. Most other countries produce only about 10 percent of the big three’s average output.

All that brought me back to the same question I asked about energy. What if China and India consumed grain at the rate we do?

On a per capita basis, every man, woman, and child in the United States consumes almost a metric ton of grain each year.

What if more and more Chinese and Indian citizens enter the middle class, and what if they consume grain at the same rate as we do here in the U.S.?

If everyone in China consumed grain at the same rate we do here, China would consume 1.16 billion metric tons of grain per year, or 60 percent of the world’s total output. And if every one of India’s 1.2 billion people were able to not only have enough food to be above the starvation level, but consume grain at the same rate we do here, they’d consume an additional 1 billion metric tons of grain, or 52% of the world’s total supply.

Once again, the implications are profound.

via Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive – Jobs and population: Mother Earth actually has the capacity to feed her people « – Blogs from CNN.com.