Explore "The Conquest of Bread" by Peter Kropotkin on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
We have seen how the 3,500,000 inhabitants of the two departments round Paris could find ample bread by cultivating only a third of their territory. Let us now pass on to cattle.
Englishmen, who eat much meat, consume on an average a little less than 220 pounds a year per adult. Supposing all meats consumed were oxen, that makes a little less than the third of an ox. An ox a year for five individuals (including children) is already a sufficient ration. For 3,500,000 inhabitants this would make an annual consumption of 700,000 head of cattle.