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Milo
Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 342
Location: Oop North-ish.
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 Posted: Thu Dec 08, 05 12:36 am Post subject: |
 
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I shall not cease from mental strife,
Nor shall my spade cease in my hand
'Til we have filled with artichokes
All England's green and pleasant land..............
Rob,
On population...........
The solution is in our hands by Jeremy Rifkin, author of Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (Plume, 1992), and The Biotech Century (Victor Gollancz, 1998).
He is also the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington DC, USA. https://www.foet.org/JeremyRifkin.htm (Dodgy moustache alert).
In the US 157 million tons of cereals, legumes and vegetable protein � all suitable for human consumption � is fed to livestock to produce just 28 million tons of animal protein in the form of meat.
In developing countries, using land to create an artificial food chain has resulted in misery for hundreds of millions of people. An acre of cereal produces five times more protein than an acre used for meat production; legumes such as beans, peas and lentils can produce 10 times more protein and, in the case of soya, 30 times more.
Human consequences of the shift from food to feed were dramatically illustrated during the Ethiopian famine in 1984. While people starved, Ethiopia was growing linseed cake, cottonseed cake and rapeseed meal for European livestock. Millions of acres of land in the developing world are used for this purpose. Tragically, 80 per cent of the world�s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses which are fed to animals for consumption by the affluent.
The global population is set to rise from 6.1 billion (2002) to 9.3 billion by 2050 (1) (How old will you / your children be?), and Worldwatch reports (3) forecast severe global food shortages leading to famine on an unprecedented scale.
The fast growth of the world's population is a serious problem because it means there are more mouths to feed, resulting in more pressure on water, land, wildlife and so on. By 2050, the 49 least-developed countries will nearly triple in size, from 668 million to 1.86 billion people (1). By 2050, today�s developing countries will account for over 85 per cent of the world population (1).
However, although this makes the hunger problem worse, it does not actually cause it. It is the growth of incomes and demand for 'luxury' items in rich countries that have triggered the hunger crisis. The world is a much wealthier place today than it was 40 years ago and as wages have risen they have encouraged large-scale meat eating in richer countries, heightening the competition for cereals between animals and humans.
A huge �consumption gap� exists between industrialised and developing countries. The world�s richest countries, with 20 per cent of global population, account for 86 per cent of total private consumption, whereas the poorest 20 per cent of the world�s people account for just 1.3 per cent.
A child born today in an industrialised country will add more to consumption and pollution over his or her lifetime than 30 to 50 children born in developing countries. (2)
The decline in world fish stocks, the erosion of agricultural land and the limits of technology to boost grain yields mean we are fast approaching the limit of resources and the earth's carrying capacity. We need to rethink the way limited supplies of plant food are distributed and start feeding the world.
Eating meat is not the only reason for world hunger, but it is a major cause. We must drastically change our eating habits if we are to feed the world adequately. People are going hungry while ever increasing numbers of animals are fed huge amounts of food in a hopelessly inefficient system.
By not using animals as meat producing machines, this food could be freed to help those that need it most. Veganism, (he says vegetarianism) by using up far less of the world�s resources of food, land water and energy, is a positive step that we can all easily take to help feed people in poorer countries.
1. World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision. United Nations Population Division.
2. Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change, United Nations Population Fund, 2001
3. Brown, L., Full House, Worldwatch Inst. 1994 |
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ele
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Rob R
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Milo
Joined: 16 May 2005
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Location: Oop North-ish.
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dpack
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Milo
Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 342
Location: Oop North-ish.
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Northern_Lad
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dpack
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. the problem is both population size and expectaion .malthus may well save the planet as might education and action . breed and consume are hard wired into humans but we have the abilty to overide that ,if we do our few decendants will be rich beyond imagination .
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