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    Food For Thought - Meat Production and What's Wrong With What We Eat

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    Dhruv Damree
    1) According to experts, reducing meat production by 10% could feed 60 million more people, as meat requires much more resources than plant-based foods. 2) The production of meat has increased fivefold since the mid-20th century, and continuing on this path could support 4 billion additional people through plant foods instead of livestock. 3) Raising livestock is inefficient, as only about 10% of the protein and calories fed to animals are obtained from the meat eaten by humans, and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.

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    Food For Thought - Meat Production and What's Wrong With What We Eat

    Uploaded by

    Dhruv Damree
    50 views3 pages
    1) According to experts, reducing meat production by 10% could feed 60 million more people, as meat requires much more resources than plant-based foods. 2) The production of meat has increased fivefold since the mid-20th century, and continuing on this path could support 4 billion additional people through plant foods instead of livestock. 3) Raising livestock is inefficient, as only about 10% of the protein and calories fed to animals are obtained from the meat eaten by humans, and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.

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    ABOUT MEAT.docx

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    1) According to experts, reducing meat production by 10% could feed 60 million more people, as meat requires much more resources than plant-based foods. 2) The production of meat has increased fivefold since the mid-20th century, and continuing on this path could support 4 billion additional people through plant foods instead of livestock. 3) Raising livestock is inefficient, as only about 10% of the protein and calories fed to animals are obtained from the meat eaten by humans, and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    50 views3 pages

    Food For Thought - Meat Production and What's Wrong With What We Eat

    Uploaded by

    Dhruv Damree
    1) According to experts, reducing meat production by 10% could feed 60 million more people, as meat requires much more resources than plant-based foods. 2) The production of meat has increased fivefold since the mid-20th century, and continuing on this path could support 4 billion additional people through plant foods instead of livestock. 3) Raising livestock is inefficient, as only about 10% of the protein and calories fed to animals are obtained from the meat eaten by humans, and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Food For Thought Meat

    Production and Whats Wrong


    With What We Eat
    Andreas moritz blog - http://www.andreasmoritzblog.com/
    Posted on May 15, 2013

    According to Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer, we would have enough food for the
    entire developing world if we ate half as much meat. Reducing meat production
    by merely 10 percent could release enough grain and other natural foods to feed
    60 million people! Albert Einstein had this to say about vegetarianism: Nothing
    will benefit human health and increase the chance for survival on Earth as much
    as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. He predicted that producing and eating so
    much meat would literally kill us and our environment. Leo Tolstoy stated,
    Vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism.

    In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in
    on whats wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too
    much fast food, too little home cooking), and why its putting the entire planet
    at risk.
    The worlds output of meat increased fivefold in the second half of the
    20 century.
    th

    Given the current trend, by 2050, the increases in meat production will have reached a point
    where we could feed 4 billion extra people with the plant food that is now being used to raise
    cattle. Only 10 percent of the protein and calories we feed to our livestock are recovered in
    the meat we eat. In the case of the United States, for the 20 million tons of humanly edible
    and nutritious protein that is fed to livestock yearly (apart from the waste products and

    drugs), only about 2 million tons of meat protein are obtained; and out of that amount, less

    than 27 percent can be utilized by the human body.


    If you are concerned about the worlds survival, consider the following
    statistics:

    One acre of grain produces 5 times more protein than an acre of pasture
    set aside for meat production. An acre of beans or peas produces 10 times
    more protein and an acre of spinach 28 times more protein. Almost all land
    can be used for growing some crop or another.

    One portion of meat contains only 20 grams of protein, whereas a typical


    100-gram portion of beans yields 35 grams of protein. The meat, however,
    costs about 20 times more than the beans do. Being a vegetarian saves
    not only lives, but also money.

    The food energy supplied by meat production uses 10 times more fossil
    fuel than the food energy supplied by plant production. Given the current
    shortage of fossil fuels on the planet, meat production may soon become
    unaffordable.

    The worlds livestock now produces at least 10 percent of all the


    greenhouse gases. In other words, emissions from livestock have become a
    significant source of atmospheric methane. As of 1990, domestic animals
    currently account for about 15 percent of the annual anthropogenic
    methane emissions, and the number has been steadily increasing ever
    since.

    85 percent of the topsoil lost in the USA each year is directly associated
    with the raising of livestock. In this way, 4 million acres of cropland is
    destroyed every year. In the same way, precious rain forests have had to
    give way to satisfy the demand for more meat in the world.

    To grow one pound of wheat requires only 60 pounds of water, whereas


    the production of one pound of meat requires a staggering 50,000 pounds
    of water. To produce one pound of chicken, 1,800 pounds of water are
    needed. Large chicken slaughtering plants, in fact, expend up to 100
    million gallons of water daily, enough to supply a city of 25,000 people!

    According to research published in Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 85,


    No. 15, April 9, 2007: 34-35, roxarsone, an arsenic-based additive used in
    most chicken feed, could pose health risks to humans. Roxasone is used to
    promote growth, kill parasites and improve the color of chicken meat.
    Under certain conditions, which can occur within live chickens or on farm
    land, this compound converts into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic.
    This form of arsenic has been linked to bladder, lung, skin, kidney and
    colon cancers, and low-level exposure can lead to partial paralysis and
    diabetes. Of course, arsenic is also a deadly poison. Over 70 percent of the
    9 billion broiler chickens produced annually in the United States are fed
    roxarsone.

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