Vegetarianism Scientific And Spiritual Basis

Author(s): Jashwant B Mehta
Publisher: Jashwant B Mehta

Page 25

Chapter V
ECONOMIC / ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS
(a) A misplaced belief There is a misconceived belief that if entire population of the world were to be vegetarian, there could be shortage of food as there may not be enough of grain left for everybody to eat. In fact, the author himself was also carried away by this false notion during his childhood. However, this is contrary to the actual facts. The reality is that meat or poultry industry is mainly dependant on the animals or birds who are raised specially to provide the source of food either meat or chicken. The word 'farm is popular for such an activity in the same manner as the farms where grains or vegetables or fruits are grown. The USA is the most striking example in this regard. As many as 10780 million birds and animals raised in these farms in the year 2008 were killed for food (of which nearly 600 million were mammals). The animals raised on these farms are fed with grains, most of which is suitable for human consumption. The amount of grains fed to these animals is such a huge quantity that it can sustain a lot many more people than those sustained from the meat available by killing of these animals raised in these farms. Most of the livestock in the USA i.e. pigs, cattle, lambs, goats etc. are raised specifically to supply meat. The Americans are among the biggest meat consumers in the world. As many as 150 lbs. of meat is consumed by an average American per annum of which beef and pork constitute 93%. The U.S.A. is also one of the largest producers of the grains in the world. However, most of the grains including the corn, oat and barley etc. produced in the USA is utilized to feed the livestock. It produces 1.5 billion bushels of corn annually which is almost 55% of the world's total production. (1 bushel is equivalent to 8 gallons by volume). However, 80% of the corn produced is fed to the livestock and only 20% is consumed by the human beings. Similar, is the story of oat, which is one of the valuable cereal grains. Of the one billion bushels of oats produced per annum, as much as 85% is utilized for feeding the livestock. In the case of Barley, a cereal, which was chiefly used for making bread in Europe all through before it was gradually replaced by wheat and rye and whose nutritive contents are very similar to wheat and oats as much as 40% of the total 350 million bushels produced per year, is utilized as feed for feeding livestock raised in animal farms. So well regulated is the linkage between
The total no. of animals & birds killed in the whole world during this period for food were staggering 58 billion!