[0]http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/home/en/news_archive/2017_More...
[0]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/12/colorado...
Not everything grows particularly well in a given location.
Could is doing a lot of work here, especially because someone might quickly read this as would. This statistic makes it seem like 36% of non-forage inedibles can only be processed by livestock, but there isn't evidence for that.
This is exactly what I mean - the statistic has convinced you of some unwritten law that says that only livestock or humans can eat this stuff. Since humans can't, it has to go to livestock.
But you're completely ignoring that processing these inedibles doesn't have to come in the form of eating them - we can make compost, building materials, packaging. Just because something is doesn't mean it ought to.
Do you know what composts that stuff like crazy, though?
Feeding it to cows.
And even better, it reduces methane and carbon dioxide emissions, because you're turning all that carbon into cows instead of just letting bacteria emit it as gas.
That's why we don't eat grass. Because it doesn't feed us. But it feeds cows.
Pigs used to be fed swill but mad cows disease and foot and mouth put paid to that.
[0] https://littlecreekmontana.shop/blogs/ranch-blog/food-for-th...