Post by id4578 on Oct 17, 2014 7:11:05 GMT
Anyway, I saw this and thought of you (or this thread anyway) !
The city of Palitana in Gujarat, India has become the first fully vegetarian city in the world! By law!
www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/in-india-the-world-039-s-first-vegetarian-city/india-palitana-food-meat-fish-gujarat/c3s17132/#.VEC2JGeE4SX
Also this was interesting from an online magazine called MarketPlace (looks business oriented.. no neither have I). A story about the grain market but linked with world hunger and what could be achieved if the US didn't grow so much animal feed: www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/hard-look-corn-economics-%E2%80%94-and-world-hunger
I put that question to Bruce Babcock, an economics professor at Iowa State University who studies corn, ethanol and renewable fuels.
"Our ability to supply the world with vegetables is practically unlimited," Babcock said.
Take corn, and add in other giant crops that basically just feed animals—crops like soybeans, barley, hay, sorghum—and two-thirds of U.S. farmland goes to animal feed.
"Such a small portion of our land goes to grow actual food that people consume," said Babcock, "that if we really wanted to increase that supply, it would be pretty easy."
The trick would be convincing the country—and other countries that import animal feed from the U.S.—to go vegan.
"There would be such a surplus of farmland to grow kumquats and pecans that we would be awash in those, in a heartbeat," says Babcock.
Would it be enough to feed the 10 billion people the United Nations projects as global population by 2100?
"We would have more land available for the 10 billion than they would know what to do with," says Babcock.
But we don’t. Thank markets.
"That’s not what consumers want," says Babcock. "As they get more money, they want to eat meat."
So farmers plant corn.
You are the consumer, so it's up to you!
(the links came from a Mercy for Animals email - I'll spare you from an expose of Canadian transport workers hitting pigs with baseball bats, kicking them violently on the ground.. whilst officials there as regulators help them. I would imagine it is commonplace in animal transportation around the globe, just rarely do people get in with cameras to expose it. Not something I could watch myself and maybe not appropriate links for a hifi forum).
The city of Palitana in Gujarat, India has become the first fully vegetarian city in the world! By law!
www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/in-india-the-world-039-s-first-vegetarian-city/india-palitana-food-meat-fish-gujarat/c3s17132/#.VEC2JGeE4SX
Also this was interesting from an online magazine called MarketPlace (looks business oriented.. no neither have I). A story about the grain market but linked with world hunger and what could be achieved if the US didn't grow so much animal feed: www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/hard-look-corn-economics-%E2%80%94-and-world-hunger
MarketPlace said:
We plant more than 90 million acres of corn, and it’s in huge surplus. And it’s not even food. What if we planted actual food instead?I put that question to Bruce Babcock, an economics professor at Iowa State University who studies corn, ethanol and renewable fuels.
"Our ability to supply the world with vegetables is practically unlimited," Babcock said.
Take corn, and add in other giant crops that basically just feed animals—crops like soybeans, barley, hay, sorghum—and two-thirds of U.S. farmland goes to animal feed.
"Such a small portion of our land goes to grow actual food that people consume," said Babcock, "that if we really wanted to increase that supply, it would be pretty easy."
The trick would be convincing the country—and other countries that import animal feed from the U.S.—to go vegan.
"There would be such a surplus of farmland to grow kumquats and pecans that we would be awash in those, in a heartbeat," says Babcock.
Would it be enough to feed the 10 billion people the United Nations projects as global population by 2100?
"We would have more land available for the 10 billion than they would know what to do with," says Babcock.
But we don’t. Thank markets.
"That’s not what consumers want," says Babcock. "As they get more money, they want to eat meat."
So farmers plant corn.
You are the consumer, so it's up to you!
(the links came from a Mercy for Animals email - I'll spare you from an expose of Canadian transport workers hitting pigs with baseball bats, kicking them violently on the ground.. whilst officials there as regulators help them. I would imagine it is commonplace in animal transportation around the globe, just rarely do people get in with cameras to expose it. Not something I could watch myself and maybe not appropriate links for a hifi forum).
