Ethiopian livestock-keeper and her children (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu).

Livestock production may have a bigger impact on the planet than anything else. A new study from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) shows how the effects vary from country to country — and points the way toward a more sustainable future.

Below, Time Magazine‘s senior environmental journalist Bryan Walsh reports (well) on a big new livestock study from ILRI.

‘You may think you live on a planet, but really you live on a gigantic farm, one occasionally broken up by cities, forests and the oceans. Some 40% of the world’s land surface is used for the purposes of keeping all 7 billion of us fed — albeit some of us, of course, more than others. And the vast majority of that land — about 30% of the word’s total ice-free surface — is used not to raise grains, fruits…