BEEF: That is what is for dinner - Should it be??

I have heard a lot about people starting to eat less meat and that is definitely a great trend. I have had a number of discussions with non-vegetarians about the advantages of leaving the dark side. The pro-veggies mostly argue that it is a lot healthier and it is unfair to the animals but I would like to address a couple more issues. The improvement in the sustainability of world food production and the myth that vegetarians don’t get enough protein

Nearly 29% of the world population (Approximately 1.6 billion people) is under nourished. The Food and Agriculture organization reports that more than 800 million people go hungry and 60 million people starve to death (including a number a children) each year. Despite these startling statistics we feed 72% of all grain grown in the world to live stock.

Meat production consumes a tremendous amount of natural resources and creates a great deal of waste. The U.S. livestock population consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than five times the entire U.S. population. One acre of pasture produces an average of 165 pounds of beef; the same acre can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10 percent, it would free 12 million tons of grain annually for human consumption. That alone would be enough to adequately feed each of the 60 million people who starve to death each year. Meat production not only takes up excessive farmland but also other natural resources like fossil fuels and water. To produce a year’s supply of beef for a family requires over 260 gallons of fossil fuel or approximately one gallon of gasoline per pound of grain-fed beef. Finally it takes 2500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef as opposed to wheat, which requires 25 gallons.

A lot of meat eaters claim to do so because vegetarian diet is usually protein deficient. It’s actually difficult to become protein deficient unless you quit eating all together. Just about all unrefined foods contain significant amounts of protein. Potatoes are 11% protein, oranges 8%, beans 26%, and tofu 34%. In fact, people have been known to grow at astounding rates (doubling their body size in only six months) on a diet of only 5% protein. These people are infants and they do it during the first 6 months of life, fueled by breast milk, which contains just 5% protein. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (R.D.A.) for protein is 0.8 grams a day per kilogram of bodyweight. (Divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get kilograms.) Athletes may require more protein, but the amount is small (1.0 to 1.5 grams per kilogram of bodyweight), an amount easily obtainable from a vegetarian diet. Excess protein consumption can cause a variety of problems including bone mineral loss, kidney damage, and dehydration. Your body can only use so much protein, the excess is either broken down through oxidization, placing an enormous strain on the kidneys, or it is stored as body fat. Neither option is particularly desirable.
Oh yeah! Meat consumption causes a lot of environmental problems too. Throughout the world, forests are being destroyed to support the meat-eating habits of the "developed" nations. Now-a-days Animal agriculture causes about 80% of the world’s annual deforestation. Between 1960 and 1985, nearly 40 percent of all Central American rain forests were destroyed to create pasture for beef cattle. More than four million acres of cropland are lost to erosion in the United States every year. Of this staggering topsoil loss, 85 percent is directly associated with livestock raising, i.e., over-grazing. Much of the excrement from "food" animals (which amounts to 20 times as much fecal matter as human waste) flows unfiltered into our lakes and streams.
I don’t think meat eaters would turn vegetarian over-night but give it a thought or maybe eat a little less meat – for you sake, for the sake of this planet and for the sake of all those who are starving. I figured any message should have a pretty girl attached to so I posted a picture of Liv Tyler (She is a veggie).

Peace