14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new report made public by researchers working with the United Nations Environment Programme, the people living in countries whose economy is satisfactory, to say the least, eat so much meat that their diet can be argued to wreak havoc on the environment.
The specialists who pieced together this research maintain that, all things considered, the business of breeding and looking after livestock and other similar animals for the sole purpose of providing for the food industry has a tremendous ecological footprint.
More precisely, it seems that roughly 70% of the agricultural lands used to grow food worldwide serve the meat and dairy industry alone.
Since agricultural practices involve the use of various fertilizers, it need not come as a surprise that these researchers are quite convinced that those eating impressive amounts of meat on a regular basis must be held accountable for producing water, land and air pollution.
More often than not, this environmental pollution basically consists in releasing nitrogen and other mineral fertilizers into the environment.
As Professor Mark Sutton, currently working with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, puts it, “People say we need nitrogen to feed people, actually we need nitrogen to feed our high livestock population.”
Some green-oriented groups such as PETA might argue that this report is proof enough that people worldwide must immediately bid meat and dairy their farewell and turn towards eating just fruits and vegetables instead.
However, as South Whales Argus informs us, the UN researchers behind this new report maintain that all people living in rich countries must do is halve their regular meat intake.
Thus, they even coined a new term, i.e. “demitarian,” which they hope will from now on be used to refer to people whose concern for environmental protection translates into their slashing their meat consumption in half.