Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Betcha didn't know!!

With the US presidential elections not very far off from today, every candidate is busy (at the time of writing this blog)writing up his or her(of course...)environmental policy. Conspicuous by absence is the push for vegetarianism. Before you go off ballistic and ask me what the heck does meat eating have anything to do with hurting the planet, let me preempt your question by answering it....A WHOLE LOT.
Let me use the example of soy beans. It takes 16 lbs of soybean to produce 1 lb of meat. Pound for pound it almost 5-10 times more water is consumed for producing meat as compared to soybeans. It takes more energy to store and transport meat as compared to grains (refrigeration is a costly and an energy intense process). Vast tracts of land and forest get degraded annually to raise livestock and agriculture (to feed the livestock and human beings). There is a vast consensus among the scientific community and irrefutable evidence that vegetarianism is not only eco-friendly but is also probably easier on your wallet. So why is it not talked about?
I think one reason is cultural. Vegetarians, in the US, are viewed as far-left leaning liberals. They are viewed by the right-wing people (Glenn Beck and the likes for e.g.) with disdain and suspicion. Most Americans are meat eaters and they support a multi billion dollar meat industry. Farmers who grow traditional crops like corn and wheat do sell a huge portion of their crop to the livestock industry (for cattle feed).
I do think that the general attitudes of people towards vegetarianism will probably not change for eons to come. I think that I can make a teeny-weeny difference by opting to be a vegetarian. After all why break something that you cannot fix?

1 comment:

sunildhar said...

Srini : You have spined this topic quite well in this blog. I could not resist writing a few words.
You will agree that most people in the world are vegetarian not by choice but by accident, and when you have to CHOOSE to be a vegetarian it takes an overwhelming effort, especially under our circumstances in US. There are some excellent reasons to be a vegan. (which we need to define further e.g. dairy and nondairy consuming)
Mind you those beneficial effects of being a vegan do not hold good in all groups of vegans.
Vegetarianism I believe is a cultural thing with religious spin to it in our motherland.