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Apart from the inhuman process involved in the production of animal food, besides the moral
consideration of animal rights, welfare, hygiene, religion and ethical issues, production of animal based food carries with it, a series of economically dismal scenarios.
Damage done to the economy on account of producing animal based food or nourishing the meat eating habits, is irreparable. The already existing crisis looming large on the third world in the shape of the alarming food grains' situation for the overflowing masses, is further deepened, by a large chunk of food grains being set aside for forced breeding livestock for the purpose of producing animal food.
Just ponder on this fact, the livestock in the U.S.A. consumes eighty-percent of soya and ninety-percent of corn, produced in the country !
Similarly, the existing scarce land in India also, is not put totally under cultivation for food crops, to feed our one thousand million human beings but a substantial portion of agricultural land is used to raise food grains for livestock, so that, they can be made available for producing animal food.
According to the official sources, In the United Kingdom ninety-percent of the agricultural land over there, is used to generate feed for the livestock. If this land were utilized in the cultivation of food crops, they would be able to feed 250 million more people, whereas, every 2 to 3 seconds, a child dies due to starvation or malnutrition or 38,000 deaths occur daily.
We can very well conclude the above scenario in the Indian context and gauge the gravity of the situation. A situation where Government policies are guided by the western philosophy of Meat and Milk only.
India is a country with an extensive agricultural base and has a deluge of millions as its population, which makes it all the more imperative for the country to properly utilize its men, available agricultural land and animal resources. An estimated of 400 lac tons of food grains are consumed by the poultry and animal rearing exercises, for the meat industry. The Industry in return produces 40 Lac tonnes of meat and eggs, which meets a part of the food requirements of four crore people only, whereas, otherwise this 400 lac tons foodgrains could have met the full food requirement of forty crore Indians, resulting in less starvation and illness and thus, a reduction in medical expenses too. In the above context, it goes without saying, that as a result of more production, the market price of food grains would have gone down considerably and the country would have been more competitive with more exports.
When talking of exports, it should be noted that during 1995, India exported meat worth Rs. 700 crores but had to import fifteen lac tons of fertilizers and ten lac tons of Neptha, which drained out the national exchequer to the tune of Rs. 25,000 crores (Six Billion US Dollars) We ought to make the observation over years, as to the fertility of cow, or for that matter, cattle dung-manure besides its insecticide and pesticide qualities.
Besides the above reality, it is an established fact that chemical fertilizers also diminish the fertility of the soil and subsequently the output of the land, under cultivation.
Poverty situation in the third world countries is aggravated further, by the allocation of precious land and food towards production of animal food, which also, we have seen is economically unviable to the nation.
Conservation of ground water is another vital aspect for the smooth advancement in a civilised economy. Supreme Court of India had declared this water as a very valuable resource like mineral.
According to the Productivity Council of California, U.S.A, the quantity of water required for the manufacture of one kilogram of the under mentioned commodities is as below :
Commodity
Water required Commodity
Water required
(litres)
(litres)
Tomatoes
90
Grapes
280
Potatoes
92
Milk
520
Wheat
100
Eggs
2,000
Carrots
125
Chickens
3,200
Apples
190
Pork
4,800
Oranges
240
Meat
10,000
From the table, we observe that the production of one kilogram of meat requires ten thousand litres of water, which is the maximum required quantity for, among all commodities shown, and is also equivalent to the drinking water requirements of an adult person for seven years. |
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Assessing the situation, by the hectic rate at which animals are slaughtered for the purpose of procuring meat, It is only a matter of time that drinking water becomes the most scarce commodity on the earth.
In poultry factory like sheds, where chickens are bred; grain, corn
and millets are used in millions of tons to feed the chicks and hens. The Malvekar factory in Pune, for instance, breeds 1.2
million birds a year and a single technologist manages all the operations in each shed, housing 16,000 birds, Thus, effectively against an investment of Rs.Ten crores, employment is provided to only Seventy five persons !
The trumpet of substantial employment generation, played by the Animal Food Industry has also proved to be an exaggeration.
The case of Allana Abattoir at Mourigram near Calcutta comes to my mind, instantly, which renders this claim of employment generation, a fallacy.
Their claim of providing employment to 300 persons, screams of a farce, when you sit at the evaluation table to assess the number of people laid unemployed by the mass killings, who otherwise would have been employed for and by living animals.
Let's examine this scenario. The above slaughter-house has a capacity to kill 1,82,500 cattle a year at the rate of 500 cattle per day The cattle they slaughter in a year at this place, would have made available 4,935 lakh tons of dung for making 49.35 crore dung cakes, the cost of which would work to a whopping Rupees 24.68 crores @ Re. 0.50 per cake.
In Indian villages women are engaged in making dung cakes and this exercise of slaughtering 500 cattle per day would render 41,125 women jobless and without a source of family income.
To top all this, the poultry sector is being heavily subsidized by Governments throughout the world, for reasons best known to them.
The total value of subsidies provided to animal farmers and feed growers in European Industrial Democracies was $ 120 billions. The amount of money the World Bank lent to Livestock Projects in Latin America from 1963-1985 was a staggering $ 1.5 billion. When the third world countries are in the grip of
poverty and famines have become a regular feature, money can be put to better use and streamlined in genuinely beneficial projects.
Animal food industry has also proved to be an exaggeration.
Animals provide natural manure and bio-pesticides through their dung and urine, besides ploughing the fields of our farmers.
Recently the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has for the first time adopted Standards for
Labeling and Processing of Organic Foods evolving in the process strict organic standards that will boost the Organic Industry. The new regulations enacted in the US are the strongest and most comprehensive organic standards in the world which bans the use of pesticides and other fertilizers for growing organic food, besides using anti-biotics in meat,
labeled organic. Also the new standards ban the use of irradiation, bio-technology and sewer sludge
fertilizer for any food, termed organic.
Therefore, if funds channelised in developing manures, pesticides and other products like bio-gas from animal wastes, the substantial financial burden on the Government Exchequer, in the form of subsidies, as given now on
fertilizers, can be curtailed, It is implied over here and obvious that this process would also trigger the onset of healthy and nutritious food crop cultivation in the Country.
Nutritional
Value of Various Food Items (Per100
grams)
Item
Protein
Carbo-
hydate
Fat
Fibre
Minerals
Calories
Wheat
12.1
69.4
1.7
1.9
2.7
341
Barley
11.5
69.6
1.3
3.9
1.2
336
Bajra
11.6
67.5
5.0
1.2
2.3
361
Maize
11.1
66.2
3.6
2.7
1.5
342
Grams
17.1
60.9
5.3
3.9
3.0
360
Rice
13.5
48.4
16.2
4.3
6.6
393
Soyabean
43.2
20.9
19.5
3.7
4.6
432
Rajmah
22.9
60.6
1.3
4.6
3.2
346
Urad
24.0
59.6
1.4
0.9
3.2
347
Lobia
24.1
54.5
1.0
3.6
3.2
323
Moong
24.0
56.7
1.3
4.1
3.5
334
Masoor
25.1
59.0
0.7
0.7
2.1
343
Moth
23.6
6.5
1.1
4.5
3.5
330
Arhar
22.3
57.6
1.7
1.5
3.5
335
Gram dal
20.8
60.9
5.6
3.8
2.6
360
Ground nut
26.2
26.7
39.8
3.1
2.5
570
Almonds
20.8
10.5
58.9
1.7
2.9
655
Walnuts
15.6
11.0
64.5
2.5
1.6
687
Cashew
21.2
22.3
46.9
1.3
2.4
596
Pista
19.8
16.1
53.5
2.1
2.8
626
Chigoza
13.9
29.0
49.3
1.0
2.8
615
Kismish
1.8
74.6
0.3
1.1
2.0
308
Gingelly
18.3
25.0
43.3
2.9
5.2
563
Wm
Seeds
34.1
4.5
52.6
0.8
3.7
628
Coconut
6.8
18.4
62.3
6.6
1.6
662
Dates
2.5
75.8
0.4
3.9
2.1
317
Munnaqqa
2.7
75.2
0.5
2.2
1.1
316
Amla
0.5
13.7
0.1
3.4
0.5
58
Banana
1.1
27.2
0.3
0.4
0.8
116
Apple
0.2
13.7
0.5
0.4
0.8
116
Cherry
1.1
13.7
0.5
0.4
0.8
64
Grapes
1.0
10.0
0.1
--
0.4
45
Guavas
0.9
11.2
0.3
5.2
0.7
51
Lichi
1.1
13.6
0.2
0.5
0.5
61
Bel Fruit
1.8
31.8
0.3
2.9
1.7
137
Mosambi
0.8
9.3
0.3
0.5
0.7
43
Limes
1.0
11.1
0.9
1.7
0.3
57
Orange
0.7
10.9
0.2
0.3
0.3
48
Mulberry
1.1
10.3
0.4
1.1
0.6
49
Phalsa
1.3
14.7
0.9
1.2
1.1
72
Aru
1.2
10.6
0.3
1.2
0.8
50
Papaya
0.6
7.2
0.1
0.6
0.5
32
Mango
0.6
16.9
0.4
0.7
0.4
74
Raspberry
1.0
11.7
0.6
1.0
0.9
56
Chestnut
13.4
68.9
0.8
-
3.1
330
Carrot
5.1
13.1
0.5
1.9
2.8
77
Radish
3.8
2.4
0.4
1.0
1.6
28
Bathua
3.7
2.9
0.4
0.8
2.6
30
Methi
4.4
6.0
0.9
1.1
1.5
49
Palak
2.0
2.9
0.7
0.6
1.7
26
Mint
4.6
5.8
0.6
2.0
1.9
48
Cabbage
1.8
4.67
0.1
1.0
0.6
27
Tinda
1.4
3.4
0.2
1.0
0.5
21
Cauli flower
2.6
4.0
0.4
1.2
1.0
30
Ladies
finger 1.9
6.4
0.2
1.2
0.7
35
Beans
7.4
29.8
1.0
1.9
1.6
158
Potatoes
1.6
22.6
0.1
0.4
0.6
97
Tomatoes 1.5
6.7
0.2
4.2
1.2
35
Buffalo
Milk 4.3
5.0
6.1
--
0.8
117
Cow
Milk
3.2
4.4
4.0
--
0.8
67
Curds
3.1
3.0
4.8
--
0.8
60
Yoghurt
18.3
1.2
20.0
--
2.6
265
Cheese
24.1
6.3
25.6
--
4.2
348
Milk
Solids
22.3
25.7
1.1
--
4.3
205
Skimmed
38.0
51.0
0.6
--
6.3
357
Yeast
35.7
46.3
1.0
--
--
344
Butter
--
--
81.0
--
25
729
Ghee
--
--
100.0
--
--
900
Cooking
Oil
--
--
100.2
--
--
900
Sugar
cane juice
0.1
9.1
0
--
0.4
39
Sugar-cane
0.1
99.4
--
--
0.1
396
Honey
0.3
79.5
--
--
0.2
319
Pork
15.7
--
4.4
--
1.0
114
Goat
Meat
21.4
--
3.6
--
1.0
118
Beef
Meat
22.6
--
2.6
--
1.1
114
Mutton
18.5
--
13.3
--
1.3
194
Fish
22.6
--
0.6
--
0.8
91
Eggs
13.3
--
13.3
--
1.0
173
(Source : The National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad)
Courtesy - Animal Citizen, AWBI, Chennai
Summary of Dietary Recommendations
1. Food Supply and eating - Populations to consume nutritionally adequate and varied diets primarily on foods of plant origin.
Choose predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, pulses (legumes) and minimally processed starchy staple foods.
2. Maintaining body weight - Population average body mass indices throughout adult life to be within the range BMI 21-23, in order that individual BMI be maintained between 18.5 and 25
Avoid being underweight or overweight and limit weight gain during adulthood to less than 5 kg
3 Maintaining physical activity - Populations to maintain, throughout life, an active lifestyle equivalent to a physical activity level (PAL) of at least 1.75, with opportunities for vigorous physical activity.
If occupational activity is low or moderate, take an hour's brisk walk or similar exercise daily, and also exercise vigorously for a total of at least one hour in a week.
4. Vegetables and Fruits - Promote year-round consumption of a variety of vegetables and fruits, providing 7% or more total energy.
Eat 400-800 grms (15-30 ounces) or five or more portions (servings) a day of a variety of vegetable and fruits all year round.
5. Other plant foods - A variety of starchy or protein-rich foods of plant origin, preferably minimally processed to provide 45-60% total energy. Refined sugar to provide less than 10% total energy.
Eat 600- 800 grams or more than seven portions (servings) a day of a variety of cereals (grains) pulses (legumes), roots, tubers and plantains. Prefer minimally processed foods. Limit consumption of refined sugar.
6. Alcoholic drinks - Consumption of alcohol is not recommended. Excessive consumption of alcohol to be discouraged. for those who drink alcohol, restrict it to less than 5 % total energy for men and less than 2.5% total energy for women. (To be totally avoided - Editor)
Alcohol consumption is not recommended. If consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to less than two drinks a day for men and one for women .
7. Meat - If eaten at all, red meat to provide less than 10% total energy
if eaten at all, limit intake of red meat to less than 80 grams daily. It is preferable to chose fish, poultry or meat from non-domesticated animals in place of red meat ( To be totally avoided - Editor)
8. Total Fats and Oils - Total fats and oils to provide 15% to no more than 30% total energy.
Limit consumption of fatty foods, particularly those of animal origin. Choose modest amounts of
appropriate vegetable oils.
- Source : World Cancer Research Fund &
American Institute of Cancer Research.
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