Stunning piece of work from valid statistical sources, broken down in detail by type of animal as well as year. Note that 8.5 billion land animals died, and some 71 billion sea animals. There's a bunch of interesting and appalling stats herein, but the grand finale:
ALL ANIMALS
Total number died for food: 80 billion
Average number consumed per American meat-eater: 270
Average number consumed per American lifetime: 21,000
Total number died for food: 80 billion
Average number consumed per American meat-eater: 270
Average number consumed per American lifetime: 21,000
... tells the sad tale. You can read this all in greater detail here. Kudos for Noam (and UPC) for the fine work.
Comments