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By brother-initiate David Brooks,
Perth, Australia (Originally in English)
Water is essential to the survival of all living things on Earth. However, overuse of our planet's water supply, as revealed by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), has placed this precious resource in jeopardy for future generations.
Below are some startling facts reported at the SIWI's annual World Water Week conference held from August 16-20, 2004:
* For several decades, the increase in food production has outpaced population growth. Now much of the world is simply running out of water for more production.
* Grain-fed meat requires some 10,000-15,000 kg of water for every kg of meat produced. (This amounts to an efficiency rate of less than 0.01%; if any ordinary industrial process ran at this level of efficiency, it would quickly be replaced!)
* Cereals require 400-3000 kg of water for each kg of grain produced (i. e., 5% of that needed for meat).
* Up to 90% of all managed water is used to grow food.
* Countries such as Australia, where water is already scarce, actually export water in the form of meat.
* In developing countries, meat-eaters use resources equivalent to 5,000 litres (1,100 gallons) of water a day compared to the 1,000-2,000 litres (200-400 gallons) used by people on vegetarian diets. (Reported in the Guardian 8/23/2004).Also, in a further note, not derived from the SIWI report, increasing areas of Amazon rainforest are being cleared to grow soybeans. However these beans are being fed to beef cattle. It would be far more efficient to feed them directly to people!
As many initiates will recall, Master addresses the environmental effects of meat production in Her lecture "Why People Must be Vegetarian" contained in The Key of Immediate Enlightenment sample booklet: "Raising animals for meat has its consequences. It leads to rain forest destruction, [rises in] global [temperature], water pollution, water scarcity, desertification, misuse of energy resources and world hunger. The use of land, water, energy and human effort to produce meat is not an efficient way to use the Earth's resources."
So in order to significantly reduce the amount of water consumed globally, humanity needs a new approach to feeding the world, and the vegetarian diet meets this need.
For related reports, please visit:
http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3559542.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2943946.stm
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