2 February 2011

There are two things that human beings can do to avoid the nightmare of hunger.

Almost 65 billion animals are raised for meat every year and the grain fed to them can feed almost 4 billion people. Instead of eating grains and vegetables we are feeding them to animals and then eating the animals. The destruction of rainforests in south America, the spread of deserts and the pollution of rivers and oceans are due to our desire for meat.

In 2007 almost 27 million hectares of land was used to produce biofuel and in 2008 food prices soared, pushing almost 100 million people below the poverty line.

If meat and biofuel production stopped we might avert a tragedy of biblical proportions.

Nitin Mehta
Croydon, Surrey