As part of my ongoing procrastination campaign I calculated the number of acres, world wide, given over to the production of 2 row barley (the type used in beer making) for beer making. (I didn't include the amount grown for hard liquor production)
200 million barrels (6.2 billion gallons) of beer requires approximately 6 million pounds of barley
A report commissioned by Kirin Holdings said 1.64 billion barrels (50.9 billion gallons) of beer were produced in 2012 requiring 49.26 million pounds of barley
On average, an acre of land can produce about 50 pounds of 2 row malt barley.
Making the worldwide barley planting for beer about 10 million acres or 15,625 square miles. A little more than Switzerland, about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined. On this map it doesn't seem like all that much.
