Defenders of industrial farming often point to its capacity to produce food on a global scale as the trade-off for its environmentally destructive methods—but a new report finds that, even in its ostensible strengths, Big Ag falls all too short.
The green research and advocacy organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) on Wednesday released a report titled Feeding The World: Think U.S. Agriculture Will End World Hunger? Think Again, which found that the vast majority of food produced by U.S. industrial farms last year went to the most developed nations in the world, while the countries most in need of aid—including Haiti, Yemen, and Ethiopia—received half of one percent.
In fact, the top five destinations for American agricultural exports were China, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, which received 86 percent of products in 2015 despite receiving anywhere from medium to very high human development ratings, and low rates of hunger, from the United Nations Development Program. The authors note that meat, dairy, and animal feed—such as corn, soybeans, and soybean meal—made up a full half of all exports to the top 20 destinations in 2015.