Food for Thought

Life
Column|Annie Berger

What is more in the spirit of holidays than talking about food?

In order to appreciate this special meal, let’s all take a moment to thank our lives, as other people around the world do not have enough to eat every day, like we do.

What a compassionate thought for others. Now, let’s eat and stop the awareness here.

It’s after watching the documentary Cowspiracy and searching a little on the topic that I found out that the meat production industry and the consumption of meat is one of the major, if not the root reason of pollution and the barrier of access to food for millions of people.

The issue is that meat comes from a living being that had to be kept alive for months or years. During this time, it consumes massive amounts of water, plants and occupies land; all resources that are now known as limited on this planet. As an example, to produce 1 kg of beef requires about 200 000 litres of water, 3 kilograms of grains and 7 kilometres square of land. Meat servings would require about 8 times more resources for its production than the same amount of wheat, rice or soy, while being 1.4 times more nutritious than plants in matters of proteins and other minerals.

As the world’s population now attains more than 7 billion, more than 795 million people are said to be victims of hunger according to the UN World Food Program, which accounts for at least 11% of the world. Meanwhile, the earth currently produces food able to feed 9 to 12 Billion people. It so happens that there is indeed enough food produced to feed every human being, but that in reality, animals get this water and food in order to become meat for those who wish to purchase it. Only with the amount of grain produced in the United States dedicated to animal production, 800 million people could be fed following a plant-based diet.

‘‘A vegan driving a Hummer is more eco-friendly than an omnivore riding a bike’’

The documentary also provides reflection about why society’s focus on solving the climate change issue is targeting the energy sector (i.e. oil, gas, and transportation) but barely addressing worldwide food production. While the energy sector produces about 13% of the world’s CO2, the food production sector is responsible for about 50% of it. A running hypothesis suggests that powerful multinationals do all they can to avoid spreading awareness that the choices of what one eats everyday has a massive impact on the world.

It is clear that vegetarian and vegan trends are growing- and becoming permanent- because applying these diets in an individual’s lifestyle has become a direct and militant action towards climate change and the fight for social equality. It’s going beyond the direct mistreatment and killing of animals.

The holiday season especially highlights awareness about poverty and inequalities. There is a gap between the general thankful spirits of people marked with compassion and every-day actions: overconsuming, wasting and conforming to the most easy and most popular way of life.

The worst part is that reducing meat consumption is a totally realistic and achievable solution to dramatic world problems for which we are looking for complex outcomes. The world is perishing and, meanwhile, we’re eating beef, chicken and pork literally every meal because it tastes so good. I couldn’t live without it.

Annie is a second-year World Studies student interested in politics, travelling and current issues. She is editor of this blog.