What if Everyone in the World Was Veg*n?
Posted by ramabanana on Feb 13, 2007 · Member since Jan 2007 · 136 posts
The lady who cuts my hair came up with an interesting question: What if everyone in the world was veg*n? She seemed to think that there wouldn't be enough land to grow all the food on. WTF? I totally disagree, but at the same time wonder what it would really be like. What do y'all think?
Well, she obviously need to read "Diet for a New America" I forget the exact percentage - I want to say 80% - of the grain in the US is grown to feed livestock being raised for slaughter. Livestock takes more food, more water, more land, more pesticides, and creates more waste than plants. WAY MORE. Tropical rain forests are being destroyed to support the American meat habit. Ok, I could go on but I'll get off my soapbox, I know that here, we are all on the same page. :) It's just that I have heard this argument before and it drives me crazy.
I think if everyone were veg*n, the world would be a better place! More compassion, more food for everyone, no one would go hungry.
- 60,000,000 people will starve to death this year.
- 60,000,000 people could be adequately fed if americans reduced their meat intake by 10%, because of the amount of grain saved.
- Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons
- Water needed to produce 1 pound of meat: 2,500 gallons
- Percentage of raw materials consumed in U.S. for all purposes presently consumed to produce current meat-centered diet: 33%
- Percentage of raw materials consumed in U.S. for all purposes needed to produce fully vegetarian diet: 2%
- Human population of United States: 295,734,134
- Number of Human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U. S. livestock: 1,300,000,000
- 80% of the corn grown in United States is eaten by livestock.
- 95% of oats grown in United States is eaten by livestock.
- 20,000 pounds of potatoes can be grown on 1 acre of land.
- 165 pounds of beef can be produced on 1 acre of land.
- 56% of U.S. agricultural land is used to produce beef.
- 16 pounds of grain and soybeans are needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef.
- 5 pounds of protein are fed to chickens to produce 1 pound of protein as chicken flesh.
- 7.5 pounds of protein are fed to hogs to produce 1 pound of protein as hog flesh.
- Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed 1 person consuming meat-based diet: 20
(Source website: http://www.ams.ubc.ca/student_life/resource_groups/sec/resources-facts.htm, originally from Pulizter Prize nominated "Diet For A New America" by John Robbins.)
Well golly, Cricket--I guess that just about covers it! ;) :D ;D
I've GOT to memorise those stats (or some like them for Spain) in order to reel them out to people who think veg*ns are "weird."
It's pretty much an agenda of mine to turn as many people I can veg*n. If the whole world was veg*n--I'd be the happiest person on the planet!! It would feel like: being in tropical paradise, after I ate a good meal, with my best friends, with my toes in the warm sand, and my giant cat by myside, and a bunch of Steven's Simple Muffins baking in the oven (Steven I love you ;D).
Seriously though, how awesome would that be? How many of the world's probelms would be solved?
SilentCricket - thanks for that link and those statistics.... I am going to share that with as many people as I can! The problem is that most meat-eaters would start reading that and stop almost immediately - they don't want to hear the truth! I think that they should teach those things in elementary school... Start when the kids are young and impressionable. Most adults just tune you out when you start talking about being Veg...
:-\
SilentCricket - thanks for posting those stats.... absolutely amazing!
Yeah, thanks SilentCricket. That is absolutely amazing and it makes me so proud for choosing a vegetarian life. Hopefully vegan one day!
yep, those statistics are definitely mind-blowing, silentcricket. Something that's always in the back of my mind when I read this stuff is: if grain and soybeans are so much more economical to grow, then why is it so darned expensive sometimes?? I'm not complaining, but I feel that there is price-gouging going on even for veggie products....
If everyone in the world didn't eat meat or animal products, then I wonder if there would even be any livestock, since there wouldn't really be a "use" for them; would they just be roaming around the prairies like antelopes? :)
Would chickens be wild birds? Feral chickens, if you will.
That's just my wierd little mind at work 8)
i would own a pet sloth and we would eat the same diet.
ramabanana - That's something I've wondered too... if humans didn't raise certain animals for food (cows, chickens etc.) what would happen to them? Would we keep them as pets? In zoos? Release them into the wilds?
Ramabanana:
- Cost of common hamburger meat if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by U.S. taxpayers: $35/pound
- Current cost for 1 pound of protein from wheat: $1.50
- Current cost for 1 pound of protein from beefsteak: $15.40
- Cost for 1 pound of protein from beefsteak if U.S. taxpayers ceased subsidizing meat industry's use of water: $89
That's why meat is so cheap. ;)
(Same source as last post)