What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
Vegetarianism
I have been a vegetarian all my life. I was raised a pescatarian, meaning that I eat occasionally seafood, but I recently switched to full vegetarianism. One of my major reasons for vegetarianism is how much water is used in the production of meats. On average, you would need 1,800 gallons for 1 pound of beef, and 718 gallons of water for pork. Chicken uses 518 gallons; however, soy alternatives only require around 300 gallons of water. The average American eats around 170 pounds of meat a year. Think of all the wasted water when you could be eating healthier tofu/soy alternatives. Not to mention, this meat is transported all around the United States in large, polluting trucks. In addition to the excessive amounts of water use, we are also sending truck exhaust into the atmosphere. With vegetarianism, you would be conserving water by not consuming meat.
http://www.gracelinks.org/1361/the-wate … nt-of-food
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/1 … 52862.html
I totally agree we should eat less meat and less everything, but I came across this article that actually said otherwise. Yes, it does take more water for pork and chicken than vegetables or soy but you won't get the same calorie count for vegetables compared to meat. In order to get the same calorie count, you would have to process double the vegetables than meat in turn not saving any water.
http://www.sciencealert.com/vegetarian- … tudy-finds