Global hunger: The more meat we eat, the fewer people we can feed
March 25th, 2008 | Tina Noga | Food and Drink, General, Health, The environment | 11 Comments »
There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire human population. So why are more than 840 million people still going hungry?
The truth: The more meat we eat, the fewer people we can feed. If everyone on Earth received 25 percent of his or her calories from animal products, only 3.2 billion people would have food to eat. Dropping that figure to 15 percent would mean that 4.2 billion people could be fed. If the whole world became vegan, there would be plenty food to feed all of us"”more than 6.3 billion people. The World Watch Institute sums this up rightly, saying, “Meat consumption is an inefficient use of grain"”the grain is used more efficiently when consumed by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat-eaters and the world’s poor.”
It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh. According to the USDA and the United Nations, using an acre of land to raise cattle for slaughter yields 20 pounds of usable protein. That same acre would yield 356 pounds of protein if soybeans were grown instead"”more than 17 times as much!
Producing the grain that is used to feed farmed animals requires vast amounts of water. It takes about 300 gallons of water per day to produce food for a vegan, and more than 4,000 gallons of water per day to produce food for a meat-eater. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.
It should be no surprise, then, that food for a vegan can be produced on only 1/6 of an acre of land, while it takes 3 1/4 acres of land to produce food for a meat-eater. If we added up all the arable land on the planet and divided it equally, every human would get 2/3 of an acre"”more than enough to sustain a vegetarian diet, but not nearly enough to sustain a meat-eater.
On top of this the industrial world is exporting grain to developing countries and importing the meat that is produced with it, and thus farmers who are trying to feed themselves are being driven off their land. Their efficient, plant-based agricultural model is being replaced with intensive livestock rearing, which also pollutes the air and water and renders the once-fertile land dead and barren.
If this trend continues, the developing world will never be able to produce enough food to feed itself, and global hunger will continue to plague hundreds of millions of people around the globe. There is only one solution to world hunger – A vegan diet is the only ethical response to what is arguably the world’s most urgent social justice issue.
So the less meat you eat – the more people we can feed! Think about it.
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11 Responses to “Global hunger: The more meat we eat, the fewer people we can feed”
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March 26th, 2008 @ 2:48 pm
I am nearly getting convinced but what are the costs involved in becoming vegetarian. Besides I think its really kool, makes you stand out. How do I slowly settle into becoming a vegan? And an article on whats kool about being vegan could help me.
March 27th, 2008 @ 12:35 am
Great post! You provide some really helpful information about the larger values behind a vegan diet. Our personal choices are one part of the overall solution to world hunger. Canceling the debts of poor nations, promoting fairer trade policies and urging our nation’s leaders to do more in the fight against hunger are also key steps in solving hunger. Our personal choices can only have so much of an impact on an issue as large as hunger. We must also use our voice as citizen’s to advocate for policies that address the root causes of hunger.
April 5th, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
I was vegetarian for a while – nearly 10 years as I was doing some triathlons and things for a while. Being veggie just makes it all run through the burner (body) quicker and more efficiently. Eating meat is horribly inefficient for the body to process – so thick. The only thing I had to watch was my iron intake – but I was wolfing down supplements daily after I went low on iron once. What a great life… Hard to do that in Thailand maybe. Everything has pork. The vitamins are expensive… Good post! Vern
April 6th, 2008 @ 7:25 pm
Thank you all for the great comments.
To your question about the cost of becoming a vegetarian Masimba, I think it is correct to say that being a vegetarian is (much) cheaper than being a meat eater. Perhaps with a very few exceptions in the world, meat is a luxury and always much more expensive than vegetables and beans.
In terms of getting the right proteins ect. I suggest that you order the vegetarian starter kit from PETA. It’s totally free of charge and they even send it for free (to most destinations in the world). You can also download it. The weblink is: http://www.goveg.com/order.asp
Good luck.
Best wishes,
Tina
April 20th, 2008 @ 9:23 am
[...] Global hunger: The more meat we eat, the fewer people we can feed [...]
April 27th, 2008 @ 8:29 am
Where can we find more statistics on the impacts of meat production on world hunger? Amount of grain, water, waste-water, and the population levels that can be sustained based on different types of diets?
May 12th, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
And here’s the other side of the story (the one I’m on)
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtvegetarianism.html
July 28th, 2009 @ 5:05 am
[...] excessive water consumption, pollution and greenhouse gas production, and on top of all that, it contributes to starvation worldwide. Not a very good scorecard. I’m even finding it hard to justify eating fish; as I joked with [...]
October 10th, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
I’m with Keith – I love animals however, I eat meat. I tried to go vegan many years ago and the soy almost ruined my thyroid. I’m hypothyroid and within 2 months became much worse. I recently ordered a phamplet for vegan eating, hoping there was other choices for protein and generally almost every meal contained soy.
I have always had very high cholesteral and upon consulting a holistic dietician was advised that grains and many carbos should be avoided in my diet, not fat as most people think. Following this diet, my cholesteral dropped 100 points in 2 months and I lost 20 lbs!!!! Many animals eat meat; that does not make them evil.
October 18th, 2009 @ 6:38 pm
I support this argument. But I have one question. People raise farm animals, even if not for consumption. Are you suggesting that the farm animal populous should decrease?
October 22nd, 2009 @ 7:21 pm
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