Oxfam recently warned that the world was entering an era of permanent food crisis, as demand outpaces food production. Currently, one in seven people on the planet go hungry every day while one in four adults in England are classified as obese.
Oxfam cites a number of reasons for world hunger, including climate change, depleting natural resources, changing diets and biofuels. Using land to grow crops to create fuel, instead of to feed people, is clearly a luxury the world cannot afford. Yet a far greater luxury we cannot afford is meat. Currently enough grain is being produced to feed everybody, but half of the world’s harvest is fed to animals, which – when they are killed – provide fewer nutrients than they have consumed.
Instead of calling on the Government to end biofuel policies and govern food markets, anyone who wants to help end world hunger can choose to eat less meat or, better, eliminate all animal products from their diets.
If we in the UK continue to eat such vast amounts of meat, we will be using up depleted resources (land, energy and water) to feed grain to animals while people starve.
Kelly Slade, Animal Aid
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