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ਦੀ ਡੀ
ਡੀ
ਵੀ
ਡੀ
ਵੀ
ਡੀ
ਵੀ ਡੀ ਡੀ ਓ ਵੀ ਵੀ
ਵੀ ਚ ।
JAINA CONVENTION 2017
These huge farms are dependent upon excessive amounts of water, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
Not only that, in the last 50 or so years, there has been a rise of genetically modified crops that have wiped out almost 50% of natural diversity of natural seed variety!
These GMO crops not only require lot more water and chemicals, but they are also destroying our soils by killing the biodiversity of insects and other organisms that nourish the plants. These GMO crops are also extremely harmful to bees and other pollinators which further reduce the nutrition profile of the produce.
But all of these do not lead to food shortages just yet.
The biggest reason food shortages happen in the world today is because most of the GMO crops and in some cases non-GMO crops produced in the world today are fed to livestock, such as cows, sheep, pigs, chicken for meat, eggs, and dairy production. Nearly half of the world's corn and soybean supply go to feeding these animals. It is estimated that if these crops are fed to humans directly, there would be surplus of food according to several studies. As you can see, we have a hugely wasteful, environmentally destructive, and unsustainable system of food production and there lies one of the biggest problem of our time - the food shortage of today and food scarcity of the future.
It is estimated that the world will have over 10 billion humans by the year 2050 and no matter what we do, we won't have enough food or water for everyone. And with the current system of agriculture, our situation will become worse even before that point.
Now that you know we have a system of agriculture that needs MASSIVE change, let us look at what Jainism offers in the form of solution.
Jainism has advocated a few things through its core principles and religious practices:
Eat plant based foods. Animal foods are not necessary for the well-being of a human. If you depend upon animals for foods, get it without harming or hurting the animals in anyway.
Eat foods before sunset. Do not waste anything.
Do not eat foods outside their season of growth.
