Beside animal protection and animal welfare as motives for the conversion to a vegan lifestyle, world hunger plays a big role as well.
For keeping farm animals, innumerable tons of grain, corn and soja are used as feed each year, from which humans could be nourished. Huge amounts of food are used as feed for animals, while around 820 million people, that would be one in nine, suffer from famine or malnutrition. However, there is more than enough food in the world today to feed the entire human race.
How meat and milk consumption promote world hunger
The fight against world hunger will remain unsuccessful no matter how great the commitment if we do not change our actions and eating habits. By consuming animal products, the imbalance between prosperous and developing countries will maintain.
How our way of life is related to world hunger
An average adult consumes around 2,000 calories per day. The same principle also applies to animals. Of every kilogram of food that animals consume, they only put on a fraction of these calories. This is known as grafting losses. In other words, animals need more calories, and therefore more food, to maintain their own metabolism. Thus, farm animals, i.e. animals bred to feed humans, must eat an average of 7 kg to build up 1 kg of meat.
The feed needed for animals in mass production is not only produced in EU countries, but is mostly imported from developing countries where people suffer from hunger. The more animal products we consume, the fewer people we can feed, as the land and resources are limited. However, if all people were to eat plant-based food, there would be enough food for 4 billion people since the crops would directly benefit people as a source of nutrition.
Insects are not the solution
Many consider the use of insects as a source of protein as a solution to world hunger. In order to feed 820 million people and thus fight hunger, billions of insects would have to be killed. But this is not the solution because insects are not available in unlimited quantities. In the long run, this would mean that insects had to be bred to feed people, which in turn would lead to so-called "mass insect husbandry/breeding".
The vast majority of food brought into famine areas by aid organisations is of plant origin, with cereals accounting for the highest proportion. By comparison, meat products only represent a marginal share of food aid. Due to easy transport, storage and nutritional needs, plant-based products are preferred. If we were to do without animal products, the large quantities of cereals, soya etc. used as food for farm animals could be used as a source of nutrition for people suffering from famine and poverty. The more plant-based food, such as cereals, is available, the easier it would be to organize and implement the distribution of this food in such a way that hunger can be eliminated!
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