Non Vegetarian Diet: A Statistical outlook

Ten Thousand year back, Human beings started living in groups. They knew that in group there was more security. Then, they started hunting in groups. They would have a leader under whose command they preyed on a wild animal. These people also belonged very much to nature. They did not kill more than necessary. Although they were not as advanced as we are, but still they knew that there is something called an ecosystem. Human greed or the never ending wants can trip the whole system in turn effecting their existence! They were also an observant lot. They soon found out that in every season, the plants around them underwent a seasonal transformation. In Autumn, leaves fall. In Winter, it's cold. In Spring, new foliage blooms. They also observed that the seeds sprout, giving birth to a new plant. That's how plantation started. So turning vegetarian was the coolest thing to do at that time. It was more of a sensible fad! But now when I look around me, I see people have taken up a flair to turn back into primitive apes! Actually, they are aping the ancient apes who preferred a carnivorous diet. There is no harm in living a vegetarian life style. But, the problem lies in how humans continue to procure meat to eat. In ancient days, those intelligent people used to "hunt". I Emphasize the word HUNT. They did not do animal farming. They did not breed the animals. The Breeding of animals, of course, started long back in human history. But not the way it was today. The shepherds took the animals to graze and there was enough land mass with verdant vegetation to feed those animals. But in today's world, area of the size of 5 football fields are cleared of natural forests for the sake of animal grazing. Livestock production uses about a third of the world’s arable land, and as land becomes scarce, expansion of livestock production encroaches into forest land and is causing mass deforestation. Here, I am still not considering the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are generated by the livestock. The title of the post is Vegetarian Economy. So lets take a look from the world economics angle! For that first lets do some math. F.Y.I. (For your information) A hen eats around 30 Kg of food grains in its life time! That hen is murdered by dipping it in boiling water head down and a recipe is planned out to turn it into a dish! If you make a chicken curry, it may serve 4 two times in a day; effectively serves 8. Lets say you make a soup, then it will serve12 to 16 servings! (assuming generous proportions of water has been used!). So 30 Kilos of food grains are effectively used to raise a chicken and it serves only 15. Let's say you skillfully make it twenty. For a vegetarian person who consumes legumes and food grains, the diet will be around 200 to 250 grams of food grains. Like 150 grams of rice, 50 grams wheat, 50 grams legumes. For ease of calculation we take 250 If we divide 30 Kilos i.e. 30,000 grams by 250 grams we get 120 hungry stomachs. So 30,000 grams of food grains feed 120 vegetarian people while it can effectively feed only 20. Let me take the liberty to exaggerate. Even if 1 chicken is turned in to a dish that serves 30 people, it is far less compared to vegetarian menu! It directly means that 30 Non Vegetarian people eat the food that could have made 120 vegetarians burp! That's absolute indecency. And people talk about uprooting the hunger crisis from this planet? That's crap. Or rather chicken crap!!! In terms of consumption, the non-vegetarian diet required 2.9 times more water, 2.5 more energy, 13 times more fertilizer and 1.4 times more pesticides than the vegetarian one. People in India, struggle for water at the public water taps. Water tankers are booked to supply water as municipal pipelines run dry! What do you think is the reason. Non Veg gang may blame the industries, but if the non vegetarians would just take up the vegan life. They may suddenly find their neighbourhood tanks filing up! Also, government like ours, believe in granting subsidy on the animal meat! The subsidy does not come free of cost. Somebody is taxed to give subsidy to others. Guess who pays for it? No prizes for guessing it right!!! I have heard/read people defend their carnivorous life style by stating that we humans are on the top of the food chain. But my question is; Does that give us license to exploit the planet and its resources with our insatiable greed? I believe that since we are on the top of food chain, it becomes our responsibility to take care of the planet and our down lines in the food chain, instead of blatant exploitation. Don't you think so?!? Source: http://astrology.yahoo.com/channel/health/is-a-vegetarian-diet-better-for-the-planet-455834/ http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz/diplanet.html http://www.vegforlife.com