Input and Output Data in Studying the Impact of Meat and Fat on the Land Resource Requirements of the Human Diet and Potential Carrying Capacity: The New York State Example

Peters, Christian J.; Wilkins, Jennifer L.; Fick, Gary W.

Input and Output Data in Studying the Impact of Meat and Fat on the Land Resource Requirements of the Human Diet and Potential Carrying Capacity: The New York State Example

Other Titles

CSS Research Series R05-1

Authors

Peters, Christian J.

Wilkins, Jennifer L.

Fick, Gary W.

Abstract

Consumer dietary preferences influence the amount of land needed for food production. We modeled the impact of fat and meat consumption on land requirements for food production in the context of New York State (NYS). This publication contains the input data used to create a spreadsheet-based model and the output data from the program. Per capita land resource requirements were calculated for 42 diets ranging from 0 to 381 g/day (0 to 12 oz/day) of meat and eggs and 52 to 117 g/day of fat (20 to 45% of total calories). All diets contain equal numbers of total calories, and many meet national dietary recommendations. The potential human carrying capacity of the NYS land base was then derived based on recent estimates of available agricultural land.

Sponsorship

This research was supported in part by Hatch funding allocated to the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station.

Date Issued

2005-12

Publisher

Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

Keywords

model; spreadsheet model; dietary fat; dietary meat; human carrying capacity; land needs; balanced diets; diet comparisons; crop yields; feed requirements

Previously Published As

R05-1. Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University. 2005.

Types

report