People are Starving
So veganism isn't important
This is a claim I hear often, and one I've always found particularly strange. By choosing not to fund animal
abuse and encouraging others to do the same, how are vegans negatively impacting starving humans? Does
eating meat, eggs and dairy somehow help alleviate the world's suffering?
'Why are you helping animals when there are humans who need help?' is a similar claim but again, how does killing and eating animals help them? Quite tellingly, I've never been asked this question by anyone actively involved in human rights activism or charity work, nor from anyone who spends their time in any way trying to make a difference for the less fortunate humans on this planet. I think that's because those people understand that creating positive change in a world so packed with problems is a wide and varied path. Some do much, others what little they can, contributing in a variety different ways to a variety of different causes.
And of course focusing on one cause doesn't bar you from also helping others elsewhere. There are more than
enough people on earth lucky enough to be in a position where they can spend a little (or a lot) of their time trying to make the world a slightly better place, and if each and every one of us were to step up and do our bit for whatever cause we consider most worthy, all the issues faced in the world today would be covered tenfold whether they involve animals or not.
abuse and encouraging others to do the same, how are vegans negatively impacting starving humans? Does
eating meat, eggs and dairy somehow help alleviate the world's suffering?
'Why are you helping animals when there are humans who need help?' is a similar claim but again, how does killing and eating animals help them? Quite tellingly, I've never been asked this question by anyone actively involved in human rights activism or charity work, nor from anyone who spends their time in any way trying to make a difference for the less fortunate humans on this planet. I think that's because those people understand that creating positive change in a world so packed with problems is a wide and varied path. Some do much, others what little they can, contributing in a variety different ways to a variety of different causes.
And of course focusing on one cause doesn't bar you from also helping others elsewhere. There are more than
enough people on earth lucky enough to be in a position where they can spend a little (or a lot) of their time trying to make the world a slightly better place, and if each and every one of us were to step up and do our bit for whatever cause we consider most worthy, all the issues faced in the world today would be covered tenfold whether they involve animals or not.
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The real irony in the 'people are starving' argument though is the fact that the consumption of meat and other animal products is a major contributing factor toward global hunger, and by doing something as simple as adopting a plant-based diet we are actively doing something to help.
The developed world's nonstop appetite for animal products has a direct impact on those living around or below the poverty line in developing countries, because these countries often sell their grain and other crops as animal feed (or feed it directly to livestock) to be sold to developed nations, rather than selling it as an affordable food source to the general population (or using that land to produce human-centred crops) instead. Selling animal feed or animal products to wealthier countries is simply the more profitable option.
Enough crops are grown on this planet to feed every person living on it, twice, but we feed them instead to farm animals. This produces a much lower volume of food and way less available calories than if people just
ate them (or similar crops) directly. It's a sad reality that many of the starving, malnourished or food insecure people in the developing world live in places that actually grow some of the largest volumes of crops on the planet, but rather than getting to eat this food it is fed to animals or shipped overseas as their feed.
Thus, in a world where the hunger and starvation of millions of people is an accepted normality, you never see a farm animal going hungry.
Most of us have neither the time nor the money to devote ourselves full-time to actively helping humans in need. But we can all contribute to real changes in world hunger by helping reduce the huge demand for animal feed, simply by doing something as quick and easy as adopting a plant-based diet.
The developed world's nonstop appetite for animal products has a direct impact on those living around or below the poverty line in developing countries, because these countries often sell their grain and other crops as animal feed (or feed it directly to livestock) to be sold to developed nations, rather than selling it as an affordable food source to the general population (or using that land to produce human-centred crops) instead. Selling animal feed or animal products to wealthier countries is simply the more profitable option.
Enough crops are grown on this planet to feed every person living on it, twice, but we feed them instead to farm animals. This produces a much lower volume of food and way less available calories than if people just
ate them (or similar crops) directly. It's a sad reality that many of the starving, malnourished or food insecure people in the developing world live in places that actually grow some of the largest volumes of crops on the planet, but rather than getting to eat this food it is fed to animals or shipped overseas as their feed.
Thus, in a world where the hunger and starvation of millions of people is an accepted normality, you never see a farm animal going hungry.
Most of us have neither the time nor the money to devote ourselves full-time to actively helping humans in need. But we can all contribute to real changes in world hunger by helping reduce the huge demand for animal feed, simply by doing something as quick and easy as adopting a plant-based diet.
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- For more on this topic along with numbers and stats this short but informative article by Dr. Richard
Oppenlander is a great place to start.
- You can also check out this Cornell University study showing that in the United States alone the food fed
to livestock could feed 800 million people (around 900 million are starving globally).
- The fantastic organisation A Well Fed World are also worth a look.
- Finally, this article entitled Why I'm an animal rights activist when there is so much suffering in the world
is also worth a moment of your time.
Oppenlander is a great place to start.
- You can also check out this Cornell University study showing that in the United States alone the food fed
to livestock could feed 800 million people (around 900 million are starving globally).
- The fantastic organisation A Well Fed World are also worth a look.
- Finally, this article entitled Why I'm an animal rights activist when there is so much suffering in the world
is also worth a moment of your time.
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Mic. the Vegan: A Solution to World Hunger
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"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
