Veg 101 - The Whys
Diet and World Hunger
Worldwide, nearly a billion people suffer from chronic hunger. Twenty-four thousand people per day or 8.8 million per year die from hunger or related causes. Three-fourths are children under the age of five. Chronic hunger causes stunted growth, poor vision, listlessness, and susceptibility to disease.
Global malnutrition is largely the consequence of inequitable distribution and waste of food resources. Only 10% of hunger deaths are attributed to catastrophic events like famine or war. Hunger is a complex problem, but non-sustainable practices related to animal agriculture exacerbate the problem, depleting cultivable land, topsoil, water, energy, and minerals.
Additionally, converting plant-based foods into animal-based foods is an extremely inefficient process. For instance, it takes 12 pounds of wheat to produce just one hamburger. Twelve loaves of bread could be produced from the same amount of wheat.
Role of Animal Agriculture
A meat-based diet requires 10-20 times as much land as a plant-based diet. Nearly half of the world's grains and soybeans are fed to animals, resulting in a tremendous waste of food calories. The extent of waste is such that even a 10% drop in US meat consumption would free up enough grains to feed the world's starving millions.
Moreover, animal agriculture has a devastating effect on the world's agricultural land. The process begins with clear-cutting of forests to create cattle pastures. Eventually, the pastures are plowed under and used to grow animal feedcrops. Depletion of topsoil and minerals begins soon after the trees are cut down and escalates with tilling. Without the plant growth to hold it in place, topsoil, laden with minerals, fertilizer, and organic debris, is carried by the runoff of rain and melting snow into nearby streams. The insatiable demand for animal feedcrops leads to the use of sloping land with greater runoff and arid land requiring irrigation. Irrigation accounts for more than 80% of all water available for human use, leading to widespread water shortages.
Future Outlook
Western agribusiness interests, faced with saturated markets and increasingly stringent environmental regulations at home, seek to export factory farming practices and to expand the demand for their products in developing countries.
This expansion of the meat industry brings a number of disastrous consequences. It would exacerbate the maldistribution and waste of food resources. The resulting drawdown of grain supplies would precipitate major famines. The public health impacts would impose an intolerable economic burden. The impacts on soil, water, and wildlife would threaten fragile ecosystems.
The sustainable cultivation of plant foods favored by developing countries offers a safe, nutritious, and affordable solution to hunger and malnutrition. Fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes can be grown in most climates and on small plots of land. Such crops require minimal investment in equipment, fertilizers, pesticides, water, and energy, and they cause negligible soil degradation and water pollution.
Heard enough? Get started on the path to healthier living:
Proceed to Veg 201 - The Hows of Vegetarianism or request a Vegetarian Starter Kit
