Meat Consumption Causes Hunger and Starvation

[Guest guest]

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Meat Consumption Causes Hunger and Starvation*

 

Statement released by Beauty Without Cruelty - India on 21st April 2008

 

*MEAT CONSUMPTION vs. HUNGER AND STARVATION

 

*Not bio-fuel, but animals raised for meat are the main reason for the

growing shortage of food in the world. 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.

 

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. 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

accounts for 18% of global warming, more than all transport emissions

(13.5%). 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.

 

Environmentalists are not the only ones who are showing deep concern.

Emerging markets' central banks and governments are no longer ignoring

rising food prices coupled with low stocks of rice and wheat (inflation

and hoarding) and protests of shortages resulting in social tensions.

They know that converting land produce to meat is an expensive business,

the direct effect of which is a steep rise in grain prices which hits

the poor most.

 

If those living in developed countries do not stop eating meat, and if

those of developing countries (who are liable to start eating meat when

their incomes rise) include it as part of their diet, they will

positively be hastening mass starvation of fellow humans on this planet.

 

Beauty Without Cruelty (an animal rights organisation) feels that each

and every one can easily help solve world hunger... by NOT eating meat,

a second-hand food.

 

Diana Ratnagar

Chairperson Beauty Without Cruelty - India

chairperson

Beauty Without Cruelty - India

4 Prince of Wales Drive, Wanowrie,

Pune 411 040. INDIA.

Tel: +91 20 2686 1333 / 2686 1166

Fax: +91 20 2686 1420

Cell: +91 98 221 94494

Website: www.bwcindia.org

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*Eco-Eating

http://tinyurl.com/yqfjxk

 

The Vegetarian Mitzvah

http://tinyurl.com/29nnuq

 

“[Animals] were not made for humans

any more than black people were made

for whites or women for men.”

---Alice Walker

 

 

 

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