Eating less meat could help to Save the Environment (Anil Kumar Sah, Department of Mathematics)

  

Eating less meat could help to Save the Environment

                                               

 

 

                                                                                  

                                                     ✍ Anil Kumar Sah

Department of Mathematics 

In India the average consumption of meat per person per year is 3 kg, in Russia it is 76 kg, in Germany it is 87 kg, in America it is 127 kg per person per year. This data clears that in Western countries, meat is the main basis of food. So have you seen this that India is one of those countrry in  the world which consumes less amount of meat all over the world. It is quite good because presently in which drastic condition we came into it's necessary for whole world to learn from India that by consuming vegetarian foods we can save our environment. However eating meat is symbolised as having better life style. As the population and economic development of the world get increased the demand of meat is also increased. In 1960 AD the population of world was approximately 3 arab. At that time the consumption of meat was 7 crore metric ton per year that is 23 kg meat per person per year. While in 2018 AD the world population becomes 7.6 arab and consumption of meat becomes 35 crore metric ton per year that is 46 kg meat per person per year. 

As the demand of meat increases, the demand of cattle also increases. And to rear cattle large amount of land is necessary. According to German environment agency, whatever land is suitable for farming in the world from that 71% of the land is used for growing cattle fodder, whereas for growing edible foods 18% land is used. From this 18% land, 60% of land is used for growing plants that provide raw materials like cotton and 4% of land for growing energy crop like maize for producing or making biogas. Because the demand of meat is increasing so pressure on land suitable for farming is gradually increasing. In this condition, in the country like Brazil bigger forests were cutting down, so that cattle fodder can be grown for cattle. Due to deforestation, many wildlife homestead or inhabited area is destroyed and then those wildlifes started to move towards human inhabited area, which leads to conflicts between wildlife and human beings. Along with this problems related to human health also created, like the virus found in animals could affect human beings and many times epidemics also spread out from this. Corona virus was also  spread out in human beings through animals. 

In this situation, to feed world population and to save forest is one of the big challenge. Knowers suggested to consume such diet which contains less meat and more foods obtains from plants. That is in our food there must be more amount of fruits, green  vegetables, crops and lentils. However this is also to be think that the large amount of natural resources and hard work is used to grow foods and those foods are not used totally. One third of the food produced all over the world is throne on garbage. 

To produce 1 kg beef 15,415 liters of water is consumed or needed, for 1 kg mutton 10412 liters of water is consumed or needed, for chicken 4325 liters of water. On the other side, to produce 1 kg of bread 1,608 liters of water is needed. If we talk about producing 1 kg rice then, 2,497 liters of water is needed. When in huge amount, crore tons of beef is produced, then you can understand that how much water is needed. These waters comes from rivers, lakes and underground source of water. Only in Germany in 2019 AD 76.3 crores of animals were killed while the Germany population is only 8 crore. In the whole world if we look at the data of the animals killed for meat in 1 year is even more than 70 Arabs. Among these animals must of them are butchered in industrial countries in huge numbers in slatured or butchers house. From the meat supplied all over the world among them one third is supplied from China. Except India, the consumption of meat is less in Africa continent where this data is 17 kg meat per person per year. Where as in America and Australia the consumption of meat per person per year is more than 100 kg. 

A report of United Nation Organisation (UNO) tells that, presently however the production of food for human is going on in the world due to this 24000 to 28000 plants and lives or animals species existence are in danger. This means it is clear that we have to bring changes in our foods and choice of our foods i.e to reduce meat consumption and move towards sakahar(vegetarian). 

Nepalis consumed 552,000 tonnes of meat in 2020, up from 357,000 tonnes the year before. Average per capita consumption of meat in Nepal has reached 18kg per year — up from 6kg per year in the 1970s

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Sources: 

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook  : https://www.oecd.org

Report of United Nation Organisation (UNO): https://www.unep.org

Time Magazine : https://time.com

Energy Saving Trust : https://energysavingtrust.org.uk

Tatva Chintamani" by Jaydayal Goyandaka, Gita Press.

DW News ,Other reports......,