How many animals
Roughly 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for food every year. Nearly all of them are chickens, most raised in large indoor sheds where a bird reaches slaughter weight in about six weeks. That scale is what makes the classical questions of mercy, harm and wrongdoing feel new: the rulings were developed for flocks and herds a family could see, not for production at this size.
billions, approximate (2022)
- Chickens
- 76
- Ducks
- 3.2
- Pigs
- 1.4
- Sheep
- 0.6
- Goats
- 0.5
- Cattle
- 0.3
Source: FAO, FAOSTAT, rounded. Fish are excluded because they are counted by tonnage rather than individuals; estimates of their numbers run into the hundreds of billions.
Land, water and emissions
The Qur'an calls on people not to waste (7:31) and describes humans as trustees on the earth (2:30). The largest study of food's environmental impact, covering about 38,000 farms, gives a clear picture: ruminant meat and cheese use far more land and produce far more emissions than plant foods. Water is more mixed, because rice and nuts are also thirsty crops.
m² per kg
- Lamb & mutton
- 369.8
- Beef (beef herd)
- 326.2
- Cheese
- 87.8
- Poultry meat
- 12.2
- Nuts
- 13
- Cow's milk
- 9
- Peas & pulses
- 7.5
- Eggs
- 5.7
- Tofu
- 3.5
- Rice
- 2.8
Source: Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science, global median values per kg of product, as published by Our World in Data. A kilogram of pulses is not a kilogram of meat in protein, but the gap remains large even when compared per 100 g of protein.
kg CO₂-equivalent per kg
- Beef (beef herd)
- 99.5
- Lamb & mutton
- 39.7
- Cheese
- 23.9
- Poultry meat
- 9.9
- Eggs
- 4.7
- Rice
- 4.5
- Cow's milk
- 3.2
- Tofu
- 3.2
- Peas & pulses
- 1
- Nuts
- 0.4
Source: Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science, global median values per kg of product, as published by Our World in Data. A kilogram of pulses is not a kilogram of meat in protein, but the gap remains large even when compared per 100 g of protein.
litres per kg
- Cheese
- 5,605
- Nuts
- 4,134
- Rice
- 2,248
- Lamb & mutton
- 1,803
- Beef (beef herd)
- 1,451
- Poultry meat
- 660
- Cow's milk
- 628
- Eggs
- 578
- Peas & pulses
- 397
- Tofu
- 149
Same source. Note that rice and nuts are also water-intensive: water alone does not settle the comparison, which is why land and emissions are shown alongside it.
Reading the charts fairly
Industrial farming in Muslim-majority regions
Explore verified 2024 country slaughter counts and download the data. These counts measure scale, not factory-farming growth or the conditions of any particular farm. The regional descriptions below are context, not a quantified trend series.
What the numbers can and cannot show
Numbers establish scale and trade-offs. They do not settle a legal ruling on their own: whether a product is lawful still depends on the method of slaughter, the conduct of the producer and the principles a jurist applies. What the data does show is that the question is no longer about a few animals, and that plant-based food can feed people with far less land and lower emissions.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- 01FAO, FAOSTAT Production: Livestock Primary — global slaughter counts, 2022
- 02Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. (2018), 'Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers', Science 360(6392) — land, water and emissions per kg
- 03Our World in Data, 'Environmental impacts of food production' — published presentation of the Poore & Nemecek medians
- 04FAO, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook — regional production trends
References are given so readers can check them in the primary sources. Hadith gradings and scholarly positions are summarised in good faith; where a text is disputed we say so. Verify before you rely on anything here.
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