Global Hunger and Meat-based Diet

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HelpingHands

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The thread on humane treatment of animals has led me to want to bring up another aspect of the subject. What about the ethical aspect of our Western heavily meat-centered diet, and it’s inequitable consumption of the worlds resources? Read this short essay…

Loaves and fishes in reverse

Eating high on the food chain uses more acreage per calorie of protein than eating a more vegetarian centered diet. How we eat has impact on other human beings who share this small planet of limited resources. And, Western techniques of animal husbandry excentuate this problem by feeding valuable grain to lifestock.

We can do a lot just by reducing our consumption of animal-based foods
 
[
A Food Factory in Reverse
Less than half the harvested agricultural acreage in the United States is used to grow food for people. The majority of it is used instead to grow livestock feed.

There was a time when I would have said that this makes no difference. I would have said that the livestock feed ends up as the meat that people eat, so the land used for livestock feed is still feeding people.

But I have learned something that has changed this perspective.

It takes sixteen pounds of grain to produce a pound of feedlot beef. It takes only one pound of grain to produce a pound of bread.

It is hard to grasp how immensely wasteful the feed conversion ratio for beef is. By cycling our grain through livestock and into beef, we end up with only 6 percent as much food available to feed human beings as we would have if we ate the grain directly.

To understand the return on the investment we make by feeding our grain to livestock, imagine the following scenario: You take $1000 to the bank and deposit it in your account. Later, you return to the bank to withdraw the money. You would probably expect to collect the original $1000 that yo deposited, plus a little interest, wouldn’t you?

Well, in this case things work out a little differently. The bank teller hands you only $60. That’s it. That is all you get. Not only do you get no interest, you have lost $940 of your original $1000.

This is equivalent to the loss of available food when we cycle our grain through cattle. We get back only one pound of beef for every sixteen pounds of grain we invest.

To feed one meat eater for a year requires three-and-a-quarter acres of land. To feed one vegetarian for a year requires one half acre of land. In other words, a given amount of land can feed more than six times as many people eating a vegetarian diet than those eating a meat-based diet.

](May All Be Fed: Diet for a New World)
 
Please don’t underline entire quotes. It makes them extremely hard for old eyes to read.

No one knows for sure how long it will stay this way but there is currently more than enough arable land to feed the world’s population. Politics and greed get in the way. Think North Korea and Rwanda for starters. Remember all the acres our government paid farmers to stop growing crops on and plant trees instead? If needed, the trees could be harvested and the land put back into crop production. That, I suppose, would get the tree huggers all riled up, though.
 
LOL.

We have enough food; we can grow more than enough food. The problem is getting the food to where it needs to be,

We pay farmers not to grow food on their lands every year, and burn the extra acres of food harvested to keep prices low.

Feed people animal-grade grain? Are those people insane? Do they realise why it’s fed to the pigs and cattle and not people? If they were going to do that anyway, they should be growing a human-grade food on those fields, not grain for animals.
 
Feed a vegitarian on 1/2 acre? I know how much is grown on a half-acre, and I don’t see how you that is plausible at ALL, unless they are pretending different growing seasons don’t run together, we have enough water (hm, they never addressed watering all these plants, which would constitute a huge probl), nor do they discuss what happens when the same crops need to be grown at the same time, but can’t be grown near one another, or need different soil properties, etc etc etc.
 
Not all the crops they grow are needed for food either, thank you George Washington Carver.
 
HelpingHands said:
[
A Food Factory in Reverse
Less than half the harvested agricultural acreage in the United States is used to grow food for people. The majority of it is used instead to grow livestock feed.

There was a time when I would have said that this makes no difference. I would have said that the livestock feed ends up as the meat that people eat, so the land used for livestock feed is still feeding people.

But I have learned something that has changed this perspective.

It takes sixteen pounds of grain to produce a pound of feedlot beef. It takes only one pound of grain to produce a pound of bread.

It is hard to grasp how immensely wasteful the feed conversion ratio for beef is. By cycling our grain through livestock and into beef, we end up with only 6 percent as much food available to feed human beings as we would have if we ate the grain directly.

To understand the return on the investment we make by feeding our grain to livestock, imagine the following scenario: You take $1000 to the bank and deposit it in your account. Later, you return to the bank to withdraw the money. You would probably expect to collect the original $1000 that yo deposited, plus a little interest, wouldn’t you?

Well, in this case things work out a little differently. The bank teller hands you only $60. That’s it. That is all you get. Not only do you get no interest, you have lost $940 of your original $1000.

This is equivalent to the loss of available food when we cycle our grain through cattle. We get back only one pound of beef for every sixteen pounds of grain we invest.

To feed one meat eater for a year requires three-and-a-quarter acres of land. To feed one vegetarian for a year requires one half acre of land. In other words, a given amount of land can feed more than six times as many people eating a vegetarian diet than those eating a meat-based diet.

](May All Be Fed: Diet for a New World)
Click to expand...

Robbins also has a video called “Diet For a New Amarica”, basically making the same claim.

I show it to my students soley for the nutritianal information. However - I decided to stop showing it. I really question some of the statistics it presents.
 
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jman507:
Not all the crops they grow are needed for food either, thank you George Washington Carver.
Click to expand...
Are snide remarks really necessary? :tsktsk:
 
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HelpingHands:
The thread on humane treatment of animals has led me to want to bring up another aspect of the subject. What about the ethical aspect of our Western heavily meat-centered diet, and it’s inequitable consumption of the worlds resources? Read this short essay…

Loaves and fishes in reverse

Eating high on the food chain uses more acreage per calorie of protein than eating a more vegetarian centered diet. How we eat has impact on other human beings who share this small planet of limited resources. And, Western techniques of animal husbandry excentuate this problem by feeding valuable grain to lifestock.

We can do a lot just by reducing our consumption of animal-based foods
Click to expand...
for a rebuttal of these assumptions, check out texasgrassfedbeef.com, and Ted Slanker’s e-letter.
 
Hi puzzleannie,
Grassfed beef is a whole different ball of wax. Grassfed beef turns non-arable grasslands into high quality protein. According to Diet For a Small Planet, grassfed beef is not the issue.

It’s the modern grain fattened beef that is wasteful.
 
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HelpingHands:
Hi puzzleannie,
Grassfed beef is a whole different ball of wax. Grassfed beef turns non-arable grasslands into high quality protein. According to Diet For a Small Planet, grassfed beef is not the issue.

It’s the modern grain fattened beef that is wasteful.
Click to expand...
Hey, you can only turn so much corn into ethanol…
 
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mosher:
I am sure that Christ will come before we run out of food.
Click to expand...
Dear friend

You cannot be so sure of anything. You remember Jesus’ words as He walked to Calvary, ‘If they can do this when the wood is green, what will they do when it is dry? Do not weep for Me, but for yourselves and that generation to come’ (paraphrased)

What about the peoples of Dafur? You are a western person sitting comfortable speaking not a person starving in Darfur. What about the potato famine, what about all of the famines described in Sacred Scripture for the end times? What makes you think you will be immune to suffering of this nature? I hope you are, I hope and pray we all are, but it doesn’t look like the way the world works is working for the benefit of all and no country can say ‘peace and prosperity’ because all social structures that rely on oppressing others cannot continue to do so without recompense for that.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
Good point Springbreeze. Even Christ said that only the Father knows when he will return. And, as you say, here in the prosperous West, very few of us know of real hunger.
 
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HelpingHands:
Hi puzzleannie,
Grassfed beef is a whole different ball of wax. Grassfed beef turns non-arable grasslands into high quality protein. According to Diet For a Small Planet, grassfed beef is not the issue.

It’s the modern grain fattened beef that is wasteful.
Click to expand...
precisely, since we have had this same discussion several times and the no-meaters always attack the pro-meaters, I just brought it up. the site also discusses these global food issues, and makes a good, if sometimes eccentric, read.
 
Dear PuzzleAnnie,
I don’t fall into the catagory of a ‘no meater’ or ‘pro meater’. In fact, tonight I made homemade vegetarian pizza, with beef stir-fry on the side. So, I’m no ideologue, by any means. But, I do believe in good stewardship of the Earth and think that we could all do better.
 
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puzzleannie:
precisely, since we have had this same discussion several times and the no-meaters always attack the pro-meaters, I just brought it up. the site also discusses these global food issues, and makes a good, if sometimes eccentric, read.
Click to expand...
Dear Annie

Hello to you 🙂

I don’t see anyone attacking anyone else. I eat meat as it happens, but I think we will have to rethink our meat consumption and today I have re-thought mine.

To be honest, how can anyone get worked up over having a steak dinner or choosing not to have a steak dinner? Does food and what we eat mean that much as long as we are fed and not starving? I don’t honestly understand this attachment to it all, infact I don’t understand attachment to many things or habits. It’s simply a preferance for diet and yes we are free to choose what we eat, (I could develop a fetish for eating lots of melons, would that make me a freak?:rotfl: ) but I certainly am not defined by what I eat.

Futher to this if what I eat causes problems in the world and for other people then I would like to have an open mind and listen to the cases for and against diet and the way farming affects the environment, animals and ultimately the most precious life, humans.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
Hi Springbreeze!
I, too, don’t understand some of the emotions of folks who get angry or defensive about this subject. Jesus, in fact, told people not to worry about what they ate or wore. As you know, Jewish law had become overly legalistic regarding dietary concerns and manner of dress. I think the point was that we shouldn’t get totally upset with one another over different customs, or overly proud about our adherence to a certain set of rules.

Now that we live in a global village though, with an ability to exploit the enviornment in ways unheard of in Bible times, I think it’s wise to think about how what we do affects humanity at large. But, throwing stones at one another isn’t helpful, I agree. 🙂
 
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HelpingHands:
Hi Springbreeze!
I, too, don’t understand some of the emotions of folks who get angry or defensive about this subject. Jesus, in fact, told people not to worry about what they ate or wore. As you know, Jewish law had become overly legalistic regarding dietary concerns and manner of dress. I think the point was that we shouldn’t get totally upset with one another over different customs, or overly proud about our adherence to a certain set of rules.

Now that we live in a global village though, with an ability to exploit the enviornment in ways unheard of in Bible times, I think it’s wise to think about how what we do affects humanity at large. But, throwing stones at one another isn’t helpful, I agree. 🙂
Click to expand...
Dear friend

There is one food I am defined by…

The Eucharist. That is the only food, spiritual food, that defines me, creates me and recreates me. It is the ONLY food I truly need and must have by God’s mercy, kindness and grace.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
There are three main fallacies with this article.
  1. A pound of bread is not by any measure equivalent to a pound of beef and they cannot be swapped. The beef contains far more energy per pound, as well as various other nutrients not found in bread, and some not found in any non-meat food. (My doctor has ordered me to eat at least one serve of meat every day because of my tendency to anemia.)
  2. As Gandhi I think said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” There is plenty of food, both meat and vegetables, to go around, just that the injustices of our economic and political sydstems prevent some people from getting their share of it. And no, the world’s population is NOT exploding. Even the UN predicts the world’s population will never double again, and within 50 years world population will be FALLING.
  3. As mentioned, most meat animals worldwide are raised on non-arable land.
 
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