Can vegetarians save the world?

Can vegetarians save the world?
Saturday, June 06, 2009



Environmentalists are making a big noise about how meat-free days can help reduce global warming. Kalpish Ratna wonders if vegetarians can indeed save the world.

Can vegetarianism save the world? I’m tempted to say yes, in light of our food crisis. One hundred and ten million people were driven into penury last year, 44 million of them went hungry most of the time, and an uncounted number, mostly women and children, starved to death.

Food prices will rise even more this year as crop yields fall with extreme climate change, and as more land is cultivated with crops we cannot eat. The food we do harvest is at the mercy of a corrupt system. How will the hungry access it?

It takes three kg of cereal to grow one kg of meat. Thirty percent of the planet’s arable land cultivates feed for its livestock. This means nearly half the cereal we grow is eaten by animals we will presently eat. These animals need to graze, so forests are cut down for pasturage.

Add to this the undeniable reality of several recent pandemics, having emerged solely as a result of unhealthy farming practices-BSE, SARS, avian flu and now swine flu-and the argument seems watertight. Turn vegetarian, and save the planet.

To read the full article: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/6606/can-vegetarians-save-world.html