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Food for Thought: Does Meat Cause Hunger? Print E-mail

Not bio-fuel, but animals raised for meat are the main reason for the growing shortage of food in the world claims Pune Maharahtra. One-third of the annual global food production is used for feeding animals specially bred and fattened to be killed for their flesh. If the crops fed to them were to be consumed by humans, there would be no shortage.

Pune Maharahtra is a writer for Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC), she says the world is on the verge of a global food crisis. Economists are questioning how fair it is to use land to grow corn, etc., for the production of bio-fuel when people increasingly don't have enough to eat. Fuel is, but a lesser reason for this deep-rooted problem.

"The main reason for the growing shortage of food needs to be tackled: animals specially bred and fattened to be killed for meat. If the crops fed to them were to be consumed by humans, there would be no shortage of food. As much as one-third of the approximately 2000 million tons of annual global food production is used for feeding these animals for their flesh." Claims Pune Maharahtra.

The feed-to-meat ratio varies depending upon species (poultry, pigs, cattle, sheep & goats) and whether produced in a developed or developing country, but on an average 4 kilograms of feed yields only 1 kilogram of meat.

Moreover, the FAO has stated that the world's livestock production is 18% more responsible for global warming than all transport emissions. It causes wide-scale land degradation, uses large quantities of the earth's increasingly scarce water resources, pollutes land, water and air, and is responsible for excessive use of energy, all of which are downright harmful to our environment.

Food for Thought: Does Meat Cause Hunger?

 
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Water Footprint

On World Water Day (22nd March) and on every other day, for that matter, we need to remember that meat-eating carries a giant water footprint.
Did you know? It takes 13 million litres of water to raise and convert one cow or ox into meat!
Did you know? To produce one portion of beef (250g) requires the same amount of drinking water that one person needs (at one litre a day) for 34 years of life!
For further info, go to: http://www.waterfootprint.org/