Food for Thought

As you may have heard from various media outlets recently, there is an escalating problem of food shortages for the world's population to consume. Haiti's poor population has been forced to find other ways of feeding their stomachs and have been eating cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

So what can you do about it?

Reduce the amount of meat products you consume or if at all possible become vegetarian. I realize this it going to be a tough with grilling season almost upon us but it takes at least three times as much produce to feed livestock as it takes to feed us humans. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the total amount of soy and grain fed to livestock in the US each year could feed everyone on the planet, including enough food leftover to feed a population approximately five times as big!

Additionally the book, "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan talks about how the food we eat now a days are "edible food like substances -- no longer the products of nature but of food science."

Cows nowadays are much bigger than they were 100 years ago. They are bred to be bigger and are sometimes given steroids or antibiotics to optimize the amount of meat that is produced by that cow. This makes it cheaper to sell and easier to mass market the inexpensive, fatty, high-calorie food that has fueled epidemics of obesity and diabetes.

Also with the addition of bio-fuels to help alleviate the high oil prices, much of the corn and grain that would be used to feed us or our livestock are going to create ethanol for our cars. Again this cuts down on the resources available to feed the world. So instead of using your car try reducing your amount of driving by riding a bike.

So take your bike to have a vegetarian meal, and donate money to help feed the poor in Haiti.

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Photo Courtesy of USA Today