Vegetarianism Scientific And Spiritual Basis

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

Page 26

the grain production and the supply of meat that the prices of beef and pork is directly linked to the prices of grains. Price of 100 pounds of pig flesh is linked to 11.5 to 15 bushels of corn. Thus, if prices of corn goes down, the prices of pigs go down.
Some protagonists of non-vegetarian diet try to justify their stand that if animals now regularly slaughtered were allowed to breed unchecked there would be far too many left and the world would be overrun by them. This argument has obvious answer in the fact that the nature always has its own checks and balances. Even the mighty dinosaurs met their own fate and when any species overgrows the check is automatically provided by the nature. Even in such a scenario, where there are too many stray dogs found on the streets and likely to create problem for the citizens, it is human to have them sterilized to control their population rather than killing them.
(b) Criminal wastage Now look at the further statistics of the wastage of precious grains being utilized to produce meat or chicken in an animal farm in the U.S.A.
1. 10 kgs. of grains is required to be fed to cattle to produce 1 kg. of beef.
The energy value of this 10 kgs. of grains is nearly 12 times higher
than 1 kg. of beef. 2. 5 kgs. of grains has to be fed to pigs for obtaining 1 kg. of pork. This 5
kgs. of grains has 5 times higher energy value than 1 kg. of pork. 3. 2.5 kgs. of grains needed to be fed to poultry to produce 1 kg. of
chicken, will provide 4 times more energy than 1 kg. of chicken.
While the pigs are raised by solely feeding them with grains viz. corn, the cows are raised by being fed with fodder or forage in combination with grains. There are vast areas of land reserved for raising this fodder or forage. This land could very well be utilized for better use for producing more grains for human consumption.
40-60 million in the world die of starvation every year and nearly a quarter of the human population is suffering from malnutrition. If only part of the edible grain which is fed to the livestock in the USA and other countries is to be utilized for human consumption, there would be no malnutrition and hunger in any of the developing countries of the world. It is nay certain that if the vegetarianism is propagated vigorously, the planet earth will have enough food to sustain not only the present human population but also the increased number for many more years for future.