Reason 1: The production of
meat is a waste of food
Worldwide all cattle is fed
735 billion kilo grain every year. Conveyed in a goods train
the transport would require 12,3 million wagons. That train
could easily span the equator 6 times. Most of the western
countries use, besides their own farming ground, large grounds
of developing countries for the production of their cattle
feed. The use of foreign grounds can be up to six times higher
than that of private grounds. Countries like Thailand (cassav),
Malaysia, Brazil (soy) and Argentina largely contribute to
the production of our cattle feed and almost a third is produced
by third world countries. 75% of the raw materials for poultry-food
and food for swine come from abroad. About a third of which
comes from the third world countries. For example, in order
to feed the Dutch people there is, at home and abroad, 1,20
hectare of agricultural land in production, while there is
in fact per citizen of the world only 0,2 hectare of agricultural
land available (1 hectare equals to 10.000 mē). Every individual
in the world uses an amount of space of planet earth. How
much, depends upon one's consumption.
Reason 2: Meat production
leads to environmental pollution
In the west, the biggest sources
of acid precipitation, affecting forest and heather, are stock
farming and traffic. Since fertilizer is one of the great
contributors to this, the environment would profit largely
from a diminished production.
Reason 3: Meat production
costs lives
In the west, people consume
much more meat these days than they used to do in the old
days. Vegans, who totally abstain from meat consumption and
use of animals, save the lives of approximately 6 bovines,
45 pigs en a few hundred chickens.
By means of the bio-industry
all this meat consumption brings about a lot of animal distress.
Thus, lessening the worldwide meat consumption obviously reduces
the amount of animal distress.
Reason 4: Meat production
is a waste of energy
During the transformation from
plant into animal protein a lot of nutritious matter is wasted.
4 Kilo of vegetable protein (cattle feed) on average yields
only 1 kilogram of animal protein. On average, the production
of meat costs up to 14,7 times more energy than that of vegetable
food. One kilo veal compares to 100 kilo potatoes, as for
the amount of energy. A normal pasture field produces approximately
330 kilo meat. The same field yields 40.000 kilo potatoes.
Moreover a kilo meat requires 111.250 liter water. It takes
a lot less water to feed a strict vegetarian during a whole
year than to feed a meat eater during a single month. A country
like Holland uses so much water for the production of bovine
meat in a year that the same amount of drinking water could
supply almost a third of the world population.
If you are interested in suggestions for books
on vegan or vegetarian recipes and cooking, please click on
the link below.
Vegan
and Vegetarian Cookbooks |
