Thank you for your comment. We appreciate critical questions and thoughts!
Of course, changes in farmed animal numbers might be quite different than projected. We are relying on projections from the FAO, since this is the only dataset we are aware of where animal numbers have been modelled globally until 2050. Needless to say, there are a lot of uncertainties and assumptions involved in such modelling. Precise numbers should thus be taken with caution. However, we think that the overall trend suggested by the data (i.e. Africa vs. other world regions) should be robust, as the African continent has the fastest-growing populations in the world and most countries are still early in their economic development (which is highly correlated with animal product consumption).
Thank you for your comment. We appreciate critical questions and thoughts!
Of course, changes in farmed animal numbers might be quite different than projected. We are relying on projections from the FAO, since this is the only dataset we are aware of where animal numbers have been modelled globally until 2050. Needless to say, there are a lot of uncertainties and assumptions involved in such modelling. Precise numbers should thus be taken with caution. However, we think that the overall trend suggested by the data (i.e. Africa vs. other world regions) should be robust, as the African continent has the fastest-growing populations in the world and most countries are still early in their economic development (which is highly correlated with animal product consumption).
Thomas’ comment also seems highly relevant, as there is still a lot of potential for crop yields to grow massively in many African countries. Hannah Ritchie also talked about this in depth on an 80K Hours podcast episode.