Lighthouse

Author(s): Udayvallabhvijay
Publisher: Pragna Prabodh Parivar

Page 89

upon seeing fruits or vegetables or groceries stacked in shops. However, when he sees the hanging carcasses of slaughtered animals in a non-vegetarian shop, he would feel hatred at such a scene. This feeling of hatred is a strong proof of the vegetarian nature of humans. Nobody would feel hatred upon the sight of one's food. If one sees the heap of chappatis or the pot of vegetables, or rice, sweets or farsan, he would not have any negative
feeling.
Query: These days crores of people eat non-vegetarian food, eggs, sea food etc. Crores of people go hungry or are half fed. Despite this, the vegetarians get foodgrain at very costly rates. If everybody turns vegetarian, from where sufficient foodgrain would come to feed all ? Explanation: Supposing the daily average foodgrain intake of an individual is 250 gms., then the monthly requirement will be 7.5 to 8 kg. and yearly requirement will be 96 kgs. Let us round it off to 100 kg. If one individual needs 100 kg. foodgrains in a year, 125 crore individuals (irrespective of their age - though infants and young children will not need 250 gms. every day) comprising the population of the entire country would need 12.5 crore tons of foodgrains. This calculation presumes that no one relies on non-vegetarian food, no one goes hungry or no one undertakes fast for religious or other purposes. 12.5 crore tons of foodgrains would be enough to fully feed the entire population. The annual foodgrain production of the country is approx. 30 crore tons. Thus, we produce more than double of our requirement of foodgrains annually.
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Lighthouse