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What about Going Meat-Free?
any people around the world choose to eat little or no meat for ethical, religious, or other reasons. In India, for example, 31 percent of the country’s more than 1 billion people eat no meat. Will natural resource constraints force more people
to go nearly or entirely meat-free? A recent analysis from the Stockholm International Water Institute projects that by 2050, reduced world water supplies will only be able to support a global diet in which just 5 percent of calories come from animal-based foods.
Limited access to animal-based food, however, is not always ideal for hu- man health. IFPRI’s Marie Ruel points out that many vegetarians are unable to meet their nutritional needs without taking vitamin and mineral supple- ments or consuming fortified foods. According to Ruel, “In populations that don’t have access to specially formulated fortified foods or products, infants and young children should be consuming animal source foods daily.”
in the developed world is very gradual, and it takes a large reduction to make a real difference,” Rosegrant says. “You could start taxing meat, but that would be difficult politically. Stronger moral suasion in schools and social settings might work, as it has on tobacco use. But people may not see smoking and eating meat as equivalent in terms of health risk.”
Ruel agrees that education is the main strategy, but says governments should act sooner. “Ide- ally we would prevent people from falling into the trap [of overconsuming meat] in the first place, but countries have typically waited until disaster arrives,” she says. Tat can happen quickly. In China’s cities, meat and dairy products jumped from 11 percent of the aver- age daily diet by weight in 1982 to 25 percent in 2002, and edible oil consumption nearly doubled. Prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke all jumped sharply in the same period.
Raising Livestock Sustainably
Increasing access to meat for the world’s poor is part of a larger development challenge: making livestock production in developing countries more efficient (to increase yields per animal), while mitigating negative impacts on human health and the environment.
Hundreds of millions of farmers in low- and 22
middle-income countries own livestock. In areas with favorable rainfall, smallholders may survive on farms as small as a few hectares, raising animals and crops together. According to the International Livestock Research Institute, most of the staple foods consumed in developing countries come from these small mixed farms. Animal manure is a significant source of nutri- ents for crops, and large animals such as oxen can be used for transportation and plowing.
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...people may not see smoking and eating meat as equivalent in terms of health risk.”
– Mark Rosegrant, IFPRI
Farmers in semi-arid zones of Africa and Asia raise animals and drought-tolerant crops on tracts of 4 to 8 hectares. As droughts become more severe in these regions, livestock will become increasingly important to farmers’ sur- vival, since animals can eat failed crop residues and generate income in years that are too dry to raise crops. Pastoral livestock producers in the Horn of Africa earn an estimated US$1 billion yearly exporting cattle, sheep, goats, and camels to African and Gulf State markets.
Responding to rising global demand for meat, some developing countries have adopted Western-style intensive livestock produc- tion systems. Tis approach is epitomized by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), in which hundreds or thousands of animals are reared in small spaces, fed on
America/ Europe
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