Foley, Jonathan A., Navin Ramankutty, Kate A. Brauman, Emily S. Cassidy, James S. Gerber, Matt Johnston, Nathaniel D. Mueller et al. “Solutions for a cultivated planet.” Nature 478, no. 7369 (2011): 337-342.
A seminal and influential paper looking at the global food system, its sustainability challenges, and what to do about them. This paper highlights the important role of dietary change in making the global food system sustainable and the centrality of livestock’s role in doing so. It is also an extremely factually dense piece of work. For example, it shows numbers for livestock’s global land use (75% agricultural land, 23% cropland, 29% ice-free land). It also includes the fact that 35% of crops (by weight) are allocated to animal food.