Does Mexico Have Enough Land to Fulfill Future Needs for the Consumption of Animal Products?

Abstract

Land demand arising from the consumption of animal products is one of the greatest challenges for future sustainability. Developing countries are changing rapidly in both the consumption of animal products and the livestock production systems. Mexico is used as an example of a developing country. An approach is developed to identify the production variables that drive the Land Requirement for Animal Products (LRAP) for beef, milk, pork, chicken meat, and eggs. An average medium-scale farm of Mexico is described using farm-scale production data from the National Agricultural Survey of Mexico. The results show that the use of grassland outweighs the use of cropland for feed production, and the use of barn area is least. The production of beef protein requires more land than any other animal product because of its large demand for pasture land. The use of grassland represents 70% of the total demand for land for food by the Mexican population, and this is mainly for beef and milk consumption. Population growth and changes to a more affluent diet will result in a demand for more land for food; however, there will not be enough land if food is produced with present livestock production systems. It is necessary to implement strategies to reduce the use of land for food by focusing on both production and consumption.

Does Mexico have the agricultural land resources to feed its population with a healthy and sustainable diet?

“…The land use for barns and factories, which are shown in grey, is not considered in this paper because of its low relevance in the total land use. Ibarrola-Rivas and Nonhebel (2019) show that the barn area for animal products production is three orders of magnitude lower than the cropland and pastures associated with the production of that animal product.…”