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READING The Straits Times on Wednesday, I realised the food and climate crises are closely interrelated and solvable, in part, by vegetarianism. In the article, 'UN chief raises spectre of a billion starving people', the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) summit suggested food output must increase 50 per cent by 2030 to head off mass starvation.
In the long run, food output may not need to increase - if breeding of animals for meat is reduced instead. About one-third of all grain is used to breed farm animals for meat - for the relatively rich - while the poor starve. If this grain directly feeds the poor instead, there will be little human starvation. Demand for animal produce reduces grain produce for humans, while reduction of grain for breeding animals will also lower grain costs - due to its corresponding increase in supply. While breeding animals cannot be easily halted due to ongoing demand for animal produce, the UN could urge its gradual decrease.
UN leaders could encourage vegetarianism in their nations, which would not only lessen world starvation by freeing more grain for humans, but also lessen environmental problems. From the FAO's 2006 report Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues And Options: 'The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. It should thus be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.'
Also, the world's livestock industry generates 65 per cent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than that from transport.
The American Dietetic Association has concluded that a vegan diet is both nutritionally adequate and beneficial to health. Clearly, a greener diet fosters the well-being of us, our fellow humans and the planet. Going vegetarian (or better still, vegan) is a simple yet powerful way to play a part in overcoming our planetary crises. As wise consumers, we can increasingly become more vegetarian in our choice of diet to spread the cause. If what we eat can truly change the world for better or worse, please choose well.
Sng See Ann
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