Where Humans Rank on the Food Chain

This article looks at a study that scientists reported recently about where humans rank on the food chain and their trophic level. A trophic level is a number between 1 and 5.5 that tells you how much energy it takes to make a species' food. Plants and algae, for example, use energy from the sun to make all of their food, placing them at the bottom of the food chain with a trophic level of 1. Above plants and algae are herbivores, omnivores, carnivores and at the top are meat-eaters with no predators, such as polar bears and orca whales. This study found that humans have a trophic level of 2.2 and are ranked somewhere in between pigs and anchovies on the food chain. This study marks the first time that ecologists have calculated exactly where humans rank on the food chain and how it has changed over the past 50 years. In order to rank humans on the food chain, the scientists analyzed the food supply for 176 countries from 1961 to 2009. The diets varied greatly depending on the country. In parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, people eat a primarily vegetarian diet, with up to 96% of their food coming from plants. Diets in Iceland, Mongolia and Sweden on the other hand are about 50% meat and fish and 50% plant based.

On average people around the world get about 80% of their daily calories from fruits, vegetables, and grains. The other 20% comes from meat, poultry and fish. However, our plant to meat ratio has been increasing since about 1985. The study went on to explain that China's and India's growing love for chicken and pork has been primary reason for this change due to their economic growth and new ability to support the human preference for high meat diets.