The yogic diet is a lacto-vegetarian. This means no meat, poultry, fish, or seafood. Eggs & dairy are
consumed in moderation. Traditional reasoning for a vegetarian diet based on the principal of non-violence
(ahimsa), but there are other excellent reasons to abstain from animal flesh.
- Meat is often high in saturated fats and therefore contributes to cardiovascular disease.
- Meat processing is often linked to bacterial contamination
- Meat production is inefficient. According to the USDA, it takes 16 pounds of grain and soy to produce
one pound of beef. Of all the corn, oats, barley, and soybeans grown in this country, 90% is fed to
livestock and only 10% is consumed by humans. A full 50% of all the crops grown in the U.S. are fed
to livestock. One acre can produce 356 pounds of protein from soybeans, 265 pounds from rice, 211
from corn, or 192 from legumes. As soon as that acre is used for the production of animal-derived foods
these numbers drop drastically: only 82 pounds of protein can be produced from milk, 78 from eggs, 45
for meat (the average for all meats), and only 20 pounds of protein if the acre is being used to produce
beef.
As a consequence, vastly differing amounts of land are required to produce our food, depending on what it is
we are eating. For a person eating the standard American diet -- a mix of animal and plant foods -- it takes
3.25 acres of land to produce one person's food on a continuing basis. However, for someone eating a diet of
plants, eggs, and dairy, only 1/3 of an acre is required -- only 10% of land needed to produce a meat eater's
food. And for a person eating a totally plant-based diet, only 1/6 of an acre is needed to produce that
person's food on an ongoing basis. Only 5% of the land currently devoted to food production would be used
to produce our food if we all ate an all-plant diet. This means only 5% of the fertilizers, 5% of the pesticides
(assuming we continue to use them) would be needed, and that much of the land now under cultivation could
be returned to forest or grasslands.
Similarly, animal-derived foods require much more water than plant foods. On the average, it takes 2,500
gallons of water to make one pound of meat (much of this coming from irrigation of crops to feed animals). It
takes 966 gallons of water to produce just one gallon of cow's milk. On the other hand, plant foods such as
wheat, apples, potatoes, etc., are all in the range of 20 to 50 gallons of water to produce one pound of food.
When all this is taken into account, our ability to influence water consumption by dietary choices is huge. To
produce food for one person for one day requires 4,200 gallons of water if that person is eating the standard
American diet of animal and plant foods. If that person switched to eating plants, eggs, and dairy, their water
consumption would drop to 1,200 gallons per day; and eating a totally plant diet would reduce water
consumption to only 300 gallons per day. Thus by becoming vegan, one person could save 3,900 gallons of
water each day of their life.
Similarly, fuel is significantly greater for meat production. To produce one pound of protein derived from beef
requires 20 times as much fossil fuel energy as the same one pound of protein derived from corn or wheat.
And protein from beef requires 40 times as much fossil fuel energy as the same amount of protein derived
from soybeans.
Meat production contributes heavily to deforestation. The rate of deforestation continues in this country at
the rate of about one acre every five seconds. We may think that this forest is being lost to urban
development, and some of it is; but for every acre of forest that is cleared for houses, shopping centers, and
roads, seven acres are lost to clearing land for grazing livestock or growing feed for livestock.
Water pollution is also greatly affected by our personal food choices. Animal manure production in this country
is over two billion tons annually. This is a difficult figure to wrap one's mind around. However, 2.0 billion tons
of sewage is equivalent to the sewage that would be produced by two billion people -- this is approximately
seven times the present population of the United States. Imagine seven times the present population of this
country simply dropping their sewage on the ground -- no toilets, no sewage treatment plants. It should not
be surprising, then, that the contribution of livestock to water pollution is 10 times that of the human
population and three times that of all industry (oil, coal, steel, manufacturing, etc.) combined.
Topsoil is what keeps us all alive; it is that uppermost layer of the Earth, only a few feet thick or less,
composed of organic material and microorganisms in which all plants grow. Two hundred years ago, most of
the croplands in the U.S had at least 21 inches of topsoil. Today, it is down to six inches, and we are losing
about an inch of topsoil every 16 years. Of this topsoil loss, 85% is directly associated with the raising of
livestock.
Commercial meat is increasingly and pervasively associated with extreme and continuous cruelty to the
animals that become "meat". The "manufacturing" process is optimized for cost and efficiency. The cows,
pigs, chickens and turkeys produced often suffer continuously throughout their short lives. It is worth
considering this suffering every time you bite into a burger or chicken nugget.
There are so many delicious and nutritious vegetarian alternatives that it's hard to imagine a sense of
deprivation without meat.. Granted, it takes a little more effort and creativity, but it is well worth it.
References:
Food Choices and the Environment , by Dale Lugenbehl, Originally published in
American Vegan, Summer 2007
|
|
