First of all I would like to start out by apologizing for my absence from the world of blogging lately. I have spent the weekend at my sisters 4H show and sale and hauling cows out to pasture. The plus side of doing these things is that I have some new ideas for my blog that you will be seeing soon. But I would like to start this week off with another myth.
This week I have decided to cover a myth that is near and dear to my heart, the idea that by becoming a vegetarian you can help to feed the hungry. This myth comes to be because of the assumption that eating less meat (especially beef) would free up land to grow crops on, in theory these crops could more easily be transported, and are often what is lacking in diets of people below the poverty line people. Like the other myths I have busted this is also false.
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| One of our pastures that is too sandy to grow other crops on |
I have mentioned before that cattle are essentially living machines that turn products that are unusable to people into high quality protein. There is very little in a cows diet that competes with that in a human diet, even the grain they eat is a poorer quality than what we can use. Especially in western Canada most cattle are raised on land that is unusable for growing crops (by being too salty, too rocky, too dry etc.) If this land were to be turned into crop land there would not be an increase in production. In fact this land would grow very poor crops that could not be used for human consumption. On top of that a valuable source of protein would be lost to the world.
This is very true Stacey. Most people do not realize how much food actually is in the world generally the bigger problem is the distribution of the food. And besides even those people who live below the poverty line need more than just grain and vegetable crops they also need protein and fats that come in the form of all sorts of livestock including the wonderful beef we grow!!!
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