- Wheat yields are typically 1,800 to 3,000 lbs per acre and requires a rainfall of 150 to 300 gallons per pound of grain produced.
- Many of the poorest people on earth rely on grains as their primary diet so that when we choose to eat meat, the livestock we are feeding compete with the needs of those people.
- It takes 10 to 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, thereby converting 16,000 to 25,600 calories of grain into just 1,210 calories of meat (beef).
- The grain to produce the beef for a single meal could feed a person directly for 8-12 days.
- Farm animals consume 70% of the grain grown in America.
- If we reduced our meat consumption by HALF, and replaced it with legumes (beans) or soy products, we would save enough grain to feed 190 to 304 million people!! If we just enjoyed smaller cuts of meat, or a single burger rather than a double, we could make a big difference in the availability of grain as food for people.
- Farm animals consume 50% of the water used in America.
- Farm animals in America produce 86,000 pounds of excrement per second — about 130 times as much as is produced by all the humans in the United States. This enormous amount of pollution is huge.
- A single cow creates more pollution than driving a car every day.
- There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire human population yet more than 840 million people still going hungry every day.
Our meat-based diet is partly to blame, as land, water, and other resources that could be used to grow food for human beings are being used to grow crops for farmed animals instead.
- It takes 10 to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh such as beef.
It takes 3 to 4 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible chicken flesh.
It takes only 2 to 3 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible fish.
- My family and I are working with systems to use hydroponics to create food for people and to feed fish raised to be eaten. This provides a healthier diet for us with less waste and less water use. We have chosen to reduce our beef consumption to 1 meal per week. This will save 1,581- 2,529 pounds of grain which is enough to feed 4-6 people FOR A YEAR!!! This will also save 395,281 gallons of water.
- As an added benefit, reducing our meat consumption and controlling our total caloric intake reduces our chances for cancer, diabetes and heart disease and will likely extend our lives by 3-5 years. A simple choice to create a more sustainable future, help reduce world hunger, and still enjoy a great steak or burger once in a while.
Related article: QRC – Eating Meat and Your health
http://omachron.com/articles/2009/09/09/qrc-eating-meat-and-your-health/
