Food expert Francis Moore Lappe, author of the best selling diet for a small planet, once said in a TV interview that we should look at a piece of steak as a cadillac. " what I mean, " she explained, "is that we in America are hooked on gas-guzzling automobiles because of the illusion of cheap petroleum. Likewise, we got hooked on a grain fed, meat centred diet because of the illusion of cheap grain."
According to information compiled by the United States department of Agriculture, over 90% of all the grain produced in America is used to feed livestock - cows, pigs, lambs and chickens - animals that wind up on dinner tables. Yet the process of using grain to produce meat is incredibly wasteful: the USDA"s Economic Research service shows that we get back only one pound of beef for every sixteen pounds of grain!
As the world continues to pollute its natural resources, there is another significant concern in the raising of livestock : water. According to soil and water specialists at the University of California's agricultural extension, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, 815 gallons to produce a pound of chicken, 1,630 gallons to produce a pound of pork but only 23 gallons to produce a pound of lettuce and 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. author and activist John Robbins states " In California today you may save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for 6 months." (and you would of course smell better :)
In his book Proteins: Their Chemistry an Politics, Dr. Aaron Altshul notes that in terms of calorie units per acre, a diet of grains, vegetables and beans will support 20 times more people than a diet of meat. as it stands now, about half the harvested acreage in America and in a number of European, African and Asian countries is used to feed animals for the slaughter. If the earth's arable land was used primarily for the production of vegetarian foods, the planet could easily support a population of 20 billion or more!!
A study published in Plant food for Human Nutrition reveals that an acre of grain produces 5 times more protein than an acre of pasture set aside for meat produce. An acre of beans or peas produces 10 times more and an acre of spinach 28 times more.
Facts such as these have led food experts to point out that the world hunger problem is largely illusory.
Economic facts such as these were known even to the ancient Greeks. In Plato's Republic, the great philosopher Socrates recommended a vegetarian diet because it would allow a country to make the most intelligent use of its agricultural resources. He warned that if people began eating animals then there would be a need for more pasturing land and when there was not enough land for the meat based society then they would seek to take others and surely go to war.
Even in the present era the same threat is there. in 1974 the C.I.A published a report warning that in the near future there may not be enough food for the worlds population " unless the affluent nations make a quick and drastic cut in their consumption of grain fed animals."
Things have not improved.
Meat eating in industrialised nations is certainly linked to world hunger and war. A recent report by Time magazine showed that two thirds of the worlds resources were consumed by America which has only one quarter of the worlds population, and that half of the food produced in the world was thrown to waste by western consumerist society. How long can such a wasteful society survive by the exploitation of others?
If only America reduced it's meat consumption by 10%, 12 million tons of grain would be freed up annually for human consumption - enough to feed each of the 60 million children and adults who starve to death each year.
Food for thought ?
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