Where are humans in the food chain? Bonhommeau et al. address this question in PNAS, apparently for the first time, in detail across all countries and over the period from 1961 that FAO statistics on food consumption and production are available (FAOstat.FAO.org). If we ate only the primary producers – plants – we would have a…
Tag: aquaculture
Aquaculture, farming and development: an FAO consultation
Aquaculture has major prospects for providing high quality, palatable protein for people. Compared to other animals, the conversion of plants into animal protein in fish, shellfish and crustaceans is very efficient: the ratio of input food to output is less than 2:1 (typically 1.6 to 1.8:1), compared to 2.5 to 3:1 for pigs and poultry,…