Environmental vegetarianism

India
December 11, 2006 7:25am CST
what is Environmental vegetarianism?? can anybody here explain me?
2 responses
@Lydia1901 (16351)
• United States
13 Dec 06
I have no idea what this is. But, I'm guessing they eat only vegatables and nothing more.
@swarn47 (1706)
• India
11 Dec 06
Environmental vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism based on the belief that the production of meat by intensive agriculture is environmentally unsustainable. The primary environmental concerns with meat production are pollution and the use of resources such as fossil fuels, water, and land. The use of large industrial monoculture that is common in industrialised agriculture, typically for feed crops such as corn and soy is more damaging to ecosystems than more sustainable farming practices such as organic farming, permaculture, arable, pastoral, and rain-fed agriculture. Animals fed on grain and those which rely on grazing need more water than grain crops [1]. According to the USDA, growing crops for farm animals requires nearly half of the U.S. water supply and 80% of its agricultural land. Animals raised for food in the U.S. consume 90% of the soy crop, 80% of the corn crop, and 70% of its grain. [2]. In tracking food animal production from the feed through to the dinner table, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1. [3] The result is that producing animal-based food is typically much less efficient than the harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits, though this might not be largely true for animal husbandry in the developing world where factory farming is almost non existent making animal based food much more sustainable. Source: http://www.answers.com/environmental+vegetarianism?initiator=IE7:SearchBox