These numbers are approximations for the most part, sketched out on the back of a napkin. They may be a reflection of my deficient education in math growing up, or of me believing the wrong web site on how much hay an acre of grassland produces, or perhaps a function of some other gross personal deficiency of mine. However, these should give us some idea of what sustainability might mean.
Idaho is a big state, 83,574 square miles to be exact. With 640 acres per square mile, this gives us 53,487,360 acres. Let’s keep this simple, round up, and call it 54 million. Let us assume that it is pure grassland.
It takes about 20 acres to provide enough hay to feed a 1200 pound cow for a year. Let’s slaughter the cows at a year old, and assume we can get 600 pounds of usable meat from that cow. That one cow will provide 9,600 oz. of beef, which translates to 1,600 six oz. portions. That would, rounding up, feed five people for a year, with each one getting a 6 oz. portion a day. So, then, 20 acres will provide a family of five a daily portion of meat for a year.
That means our Idaho meadow could do the same for 2.7 million families of five, or 13.5 million people. There are just shy of 7 billion people in the world. If we divide that number by our 13.5 million, we discover how many meadow-like Idahos it will take to keep us in business. It would take 519 of them. And that is just for the beef.
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Since North America would take up 113 of these Idahos, that means that four and a half North Americas, were they nothing but grassland for grass-fed cattle, could feed the world for a year.
Keep in mind that these 7 billion people for the most part could not live on the land that is producing their beef, so they would (for the most part) have to live on the one and a half North Americas left of the world’s available land, trying to figure out how to get themselves some chicken for change, and maybe a veggie or two. So the entire population of the world would need to move here.
And now let’s talk about sustainability again.