So in 2050, the world will have 35% more people. That means we will need 35% more food, right?
Let's find out: add the extra food
At current trends, we need 100% more food. We need to double our food production!
That means double the destruction of wetlands and forests. And we already use half of the habitable land for agriculture!
Photo by Wetlands.org
How is that possible? Why are the extra people so hungry?
The coming years, many people will become rich enough to afford more meat...
But we already need to feed animals with grain to produce enough meat.
55% of the world’s crop calories feed people directly; 36% is for livestock and 9% biofuels (also a very dumb idea). Source: National Geographic
More meat means producing a lot more grains and soy to feed the animals.
In other words...
Eating lots of meat is a much bigger factor for land use than population growth.