People come up with several reasons to advocate "vegetarianism" - you are being less cruel... its healthy... its fashionable...
The most compelling reason however could be that by choosing to make a "dietary-shift" we might actually be saving the human race. (Statistics courtesy: The National Geographic; Vol-01, Issue-10, May 2014; India Edition)
Consider the statistics below:
The most compelling reason however could be that by choosing to make a "dietary-shift" we might actually be saving the human race. (Statistics courtesy: The National Geographic; Vol-01, Issue-10, May 2014; India Edition)
Consider the statistics below:
- 55% of calories obtained from plants is consumed by humans directly (i.e. through the consumption of plant-based food substances).
- 36% of plant-based calories are fed to (and consumed by) livestock (cattle, poultry...) for the sole purpose of fattening them for human consumption.
- 9% of plant-based calories goes towards the production of biofuels and industrial products.
Now consider these statistics below:
- If we feed a cow 100 calories of grain we can hope to obtain 40 calories of milk and 3 calories of beef.
- 100 calories of grain fed to a hen will give us 22 calories of eggs + 12 calories of chicken
- Feed a pig 100 calories of grain and you will obtain 10 calories of pork!
Global consumption of meat and meat-based food continues to increase exponentially (projected to touch 470 million tons (http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5443) by 2050) - this would only mean more deforestation, increased demand for water and amore green house emissions...
The simple fact of the matter is that "It would be far easier to feed 9 billion people by 2050 if more of the crops we grew ended up in human stomachs" (National Geographic, May 2014, "A world demanding More - The future of food")
