Change your Diet and Change the World
Change your diet and change the world for the better. This is so easy and is important for lots of reasons. Firstly for good health and growth. Secondly choice of diet has a dramatic effect upon our world in several ways. Oh and the decision to change your diet will save you money too.
Our diet determines farming methods and practice. Farming takes up land. Obviously farmland is a scarce resource or if not, it certainly should be. Now that we must plan to feed ten billion people we must use that resource wisely. If you do not change your diet your children and their children will never forgive you.
The most efficient use of farm land is production for a vegetable based diet. However farm animals and fish can have a role in good nutrition and also in maintaining our natural environment. The world population is now far too high for us to be hunter gatherers.
Here at Earth and Leaf we do not propose that everyone moves to a Vegan or indeed Vegetarian diet. We simply aim to teach our readers and subscribers that it is good to eat less meat and much less dairy. Reconfiguring your diet and your life is easy, you don’t have to give up meat for example, just eat much less and from a sustainable source.
Let us compare the efficiency of production of different types of meat.
Meat and Fish in the Diet
We can compare different farmed animals to determine the most efficient way to grow our food.
Farmed Fish – a conversion ratio of almost 2:1 with little waste too. However, the feed for farmed Salmon for example is Sand Eel based which neatly switches the environmental problem to another arena. Additionally Salmon farming has some horrible environmental issues which must be addressed by taking the industry onshore. Fish is a great option because it converts food efficiently.
Chicken – a reasonable conversion ratio of about 3:1, that is for intensively farmed birds. The problem in this industry is the vast amount of protein eaten – Soya. For every tonne of chicken produced eight tonnes of Soya must be grown (Soya is 37% protein) plus wheat and barley. A secondary problem is pollution, from chicken manure. Whilst it is a valuable fertiliser it must be kept away from waterways at all costs.
Pigs – again a reasonable feed conversion rate in intensive farming of 3:1. The same maths applies although their killing out percentage is higher at 70%..
Sheep – now we are talking about grazing animals. The ratio in this case is about 7:1. Grazing is a subject we are particularly interested in at Earth and Leaf because it has a huge impact upon the UK.
Cattle – as with sheep they graze. A relatively small proportion of UK beef is produced intensively.
Goats –
If you change your diet to include goat dairy not cow dairy (and less of it) you help stop methane production and benefit your health.
In turn these relative efficiency ratios are affected by agricultural scientists through genetics, genomics and nutrition. It is likely to be much better for the environment to switch from ruminants in the diet to chicken. But Fish and Chicken have other non dietary drawbacks.
Have a look at how we can help farmers through this changing landscape in the post Help our Farmers Build a Better Future
Change your Diet and Change the World – Part 2
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