It's true that most of the food consumed by livestock isn't edible by humans - [0] says 86% - but livestock are so inefficient at converting food to edible nutrition that they still generally consume more than 1 human-edible Calorie per Calorie of meat produced. For cattle, Diet for a Small Planet [1] cites 16 Calories per edible Calorie of meat and 8 grams of protein per edible gram of protein produced, other sources seem to be in the same ballpark - both higher than the ~7:1 ratio that's implied by that 86% figure. The ratios for chickens are better, but they also generally get a much lower share of their feed from human-inedible sources.

Also, even that 86% isn't "free" - it's not all pasturing, and it takes a lot of effort, energy, and equipment to get hay, inedible by-products of human-edible crops, etc. from the field to animals' mouths.

[0] https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/fao-sets-the-record-s...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Diet-Small-Planet-20th-Anniversary/dp...

"Very confusing."

I agree that you are confused.

"But then go on to suggest that OECD countries are attempting to limit production unfairly?"

I never suggested that there was anything unfair about this. But that the advanced nations warehouse large amounts of food, and then dispose of it when it has gone bad, is well known and has been much discussed elsewhere.

"Food is perishable."

Annual production exceeds annual demand. Even when this year's food goes bad, next year there will be more, and it will be in excess of demand.

This is a big topic and I can not provide you with a full education on this topic. I'll recommend one book that I like, which is Diet For A Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe:

https://www.amazon.com/Diet-Small-Planet-20th-Anniversary/dp...