Firstly, I agree that distribution is the main problem when it comes to deficiencies in food supply in many parts of the world. There is obviously enough food being produced globally to feed us all. But the fact that half the world is obese, and the other half is malnourished shows that sharing it out is the problem. (as an aside I disagree with the whole GMO "answer to all our food problems' thing for this very reason).
I wasn't really suggesting that if the land in europe wasn't used for growing animal feed, then it would be used for growing food for humans. Nonetheless, it takes a LOT more land to produce 1kilo of beef, than it does 1 kilo of grain. Also a LOT more water. And it would be quite nice to see trees and hedgerows agin rather than the giant fields we see now.
No, what I
was getting at was the amount of land in places like the Amazon Basin
(link) that is being used to grow soya beans with the sole purpose of feeding stock, so that people can still buy buckets of fried chicken at artificially low prices. Its short term profiteering at the expense of the world as a whole.
Personally I would prefer people didn't eat meat at all. Its not a neccassary part of our diet. I havn't eaten it in 25 years, and I'm extremely healthy. But if peopple do choose to eat it, it should be priced at a realistic level.
So many of the health problems we see today have their basis in our diet. And because meat is such a large part of many peoples diets, things like heart disease have risen exponentially. Its not just the quantity of meat eaten, its the quality. cheap intensively reared animals, produces unhealthy meat that is full of the same chemical compounds that are fed to the animals to make them grow so fast.
For example It takes about 29 days for an intensively farmed chicken to go from hatching to slaughter. naturally, it would take several months.
I used to think "so what if people want to eat fried **** from a bucket, as long as its not harming me". But after many years as a non meat eater, I've come to the conclusion that as long as the human race as a whole continues to intensivley farm animals for food, when there are better healthier alternatives, then those farming methods are harming the planet as a whole. And the sooner we stop, the better.
And that argument that says, 'we were evolved/designed to eat meat'. yup we were. but theres a BIG difference between hunting and killing the occasional Oryx, and stuffing ya face with factory farmed meat.
The main argument for the continuation of a meat diet seems to always boil down to 'I like eating meat. It tastes good'.
Pretty similar to "but I like having slaves, they do all the work for free".
