Confession: I’ve never really taken vegetarians seriously; but to be honest, nobody would blame me… I met my first two upon entering the big world of high school, and with the subject of their diet only cropping up during “getting-to-know-you” games, I heard only a 12-year-old’s argument: “but animals are sooo cute!”
It wasn’t that I didn’t consider animals cute, but the dominant utilitarian (or possibly cynic) in me scoffed at such “patheticism”.
But two weeks ago, the following ten facts turned me vegetarian, too:
1. 100 acres of land will produce enough beef for 20 people but enough wheat to feed 240 people.
2. In the UK, livestock is fed enough to feed 250,000,000 people; in the world 30,000,000 people die of starvation.
3. 1 acre yields 74 kilograms of beef or over 9,000 kilograms of potatoes
4. 25% of Central America's forests have been destroyed for cattle grazing since 1960.
5. 25% of methane emissions are due to animal farming (not including the billions of sheep, pigs & poultry, so the real figure is much higher).
6. It requires 95 litres of water to produce 500 grams of wheat & 9,500 litres to produce 500 grams of meat.
7. At one year of age, most cattle have the awareness of at least a six-week-old human.
8. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by just 20%, it would cut as much Greenhouse Gas emissions as all of them switching to driving a Prius.
9. The human anatomy is that of an herbivore, and eating meat contributes to many diseases.
10. Reciprocity. We eat sentient animals without remorse, because we see ourselves as the developed species and they fall lower than us on the food chain. Imagine if you will, a hypothetical situation involving an invasion of earth by a more advanced alien species. Following our logic, they have every right to eat us.
