(I hope this is in the right place).

The world currently has about 1.8 'ecologically productive' hectares per living person. Those of us enjoying a 'high standard of living' are using roughly 4 times our 'fair share' of that renewable resource. The human population is set to increase by 50% by 2050 (to 9 billion) - but the farmed animal population is set to double in the same time (to 40 billion).

A study of the eco-footprint of food last year* found that dairy cheese uses 0.01 global hectares per kilogram to produce. It's a huge number. That means 1.8 global hectares can produce 180 kg of cheese. (And apparently, 60% of the carbon footprint of dairy milk chocolate is due to ... the milk! ... not the 'food miles' of the cocoa and the sugar).

If someone eats 50 g of cheese every day (I know my mother easily does that!), they eat 18 kg of cheese each year. But that will have used up a full 10% of their entire allowance of resources for everything for that year!!

* "Sustainable food consumption at a sub-national level: an ecological footprint, nutritional and economic analysis" by Collins and Fairchild
Quote: "However, cheese has a large ecological footprint (0.011gha/kg) as it is highly processed and requires a large amount of energy and land to produce, and was responsible for 28.3% of the total footprint of the [example] vegetarian diet.