By Joel B. Belinan
Many of those who knew me are aware that I have been a vegetarian for 34 years already. Let me devote this piece to vegetarianism and its benefit to world problems, particularly, to the environment and hunger problems.
Last Sunday, the Ang Katipnunan ng mga Samahang Maharlika (Ang Kasama) a national movement advocating progressive ideals and a neo-humanist philosophy and where I am the President had an online study circle on vegetarian diet and its relationship with the environment and world hunger.
I don’t like to be preachy so I would just like to narrate here some interesting facts. In 1995 the old PROUT Times Journal published that: “More and more scientists are strongly advocating a vegetarian diet to solve the tremendous food problems of our planet, because they say, eating meat is one of the main causes of these problems.” As the adage goes, “The earth has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” Of course, this is based on scientific researches and studies.
To back this up, here are some more facts; the primary solution to the global food problems according to many progressive scientists is to gradually convert from a meat diet to a vegetarian diet.
Accordingly, if we were vegetarians we could banish hunger from this earth. Children would be born and grow up well-nourished and they would live happier healthier lives. Animals would be free to live as wild, natural creatures not forced to reproduce in great numbers as slaves to be fattened for the slaughterhouses, with food that hungry people should be eating.
In August of 1995 Prout Times published that former United Nations
Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim said that food consumption of rich countries are the key cause of hunger around the world and recommended that these countries cut down on their meat consumption.
In many countries several revolutionary policies were adopted that try to curb the people’s cravings for meat Among these are: the Ministry of Environment of Germany had prohibited the eating of meat inside government buildings and during environmental seminars, conferences, and related meetings.
Thirty (30) years ago in Europe, the Animals Liberation Front had been advocating against animal cruelty and 20 percent of the students especially in England do not buy any products with scars due to exploiting or torturing of animals in the laboratories for experiments.
Lest I will be accused of just quoting literature from groups I am related with, here are some more facts: It takes about 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef and about 660 gallons to make a pound of chicken. It only takes about 220 gallons to make a pound of tofu and 180 to make a pound of wheat flour. Compared with the meat industry, a vegetarian diet consumes far less water. There are plenty of other examples, but you get the idea.
On land area, to produce a pound of beef, a farmer uses a much larger land to plant corn and other crops to feed and raise a cow then the cow is slaughtered to feed people. This actually is sort of going around the bush instead of taking a direct path. Why not just plant something that can directly be consumed by humans. Look, plants directly get the energy from the sun thus when eaten by humans, we take that energy to nourish our body. But if that energy from the sun is eaten by the animals then we eat the animals, aren’t we taking a long way of getting the energy we need? This does not even include all those negative and unhealthy substances that are present in those animals that were forcefully grown in the so-called animal food factory.
Some may be concerned about whether a vegetarian diet is healthy. In fact, a well-balanced vegetarian diet is actually more healthful than a meat-oriented diet. The American Dietician
Association and the United States Department of Agriculture both agree that a vegetarian diet can provide complete nutrition for optimal human health including all 10 essential proteins (amino acids) necessary for good health.
Vegetarians suffer less from heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a variety of other diet-related diseases which now cost the United States alone over $1.2 trillion each year. Mark Fergusson, a famous vegetarian advocate in his blog states, “There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire human population. So, why are more than one billion people still going hungry every day? The meat-based diet is largely to blame. We recycle huge amounts of grain, soybeans, and corn through the animals killed for food rather than directly feed starving people. If we stopped intensively breeding farm animals and grew crops to feed people instead, we could easily feed everyone on the planet with healthy and affordable vegetarian foods.”
** (Next week; I would like to talk about vegetarian cooking, vegetarian meat, or meat substitutes.)
