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Re: Gene Tinkering: YOU Are The Mice And They Don't Want You to Know
bhaktin casey wrote:
>
> >
> > Unfortunately, no one has told the hungry of the world they are suppose to quietly
> > starve to death. They are NOT going to go quietly but will plow up every acre (or
> > hectare) of habitat for agriculture first. Increasing agricultural yields on
> > existing agricultural lands in proportion to population growth is the only way to
> > protect existing natural habitats from destruction.
> >
> > Blair McClinton
> > b.mcclinton@sk.sympatico.ca
> 38% of the world's grain supply goes to livestock
> in the u.s. 2% of the corn grown goes to people.
> 77% of corn goes to livestock.
On a worldwide scale consumption of livestock products (meat & milk) is
increasing. This increase is occurring in developing countries as they
become more affluent. It is easier for them to improve their protein
intake by eating more meat than to increase their plant protein intake.
> 4 million acres of land in the u.s. goes to producing
> vegetables.
> 56 million acres is used to grow grains for livestock.
> it takes vast amounts of energy to produce meat based
> "foods," compared to vegetable based foods. more people
> can be fed on an acre of land producing vegetables than
> an acre devoted to fattening up cattle for slaughter.
> go vegetarian-stop the starvation.
I am sure that the farmers who are producing feed grains would gladly
switch their production to grow vegetables if they could. Gross Returns
of $5000+ per acre are common for vegetable production. However, most
arable land is not suited for vegetable production for a variety of
reasons.
In reality what you are proposing, is to increase the human consumption
of grain crops like corn, soybean, wheat, beans etc. If you know how to
convince the other 5.5 billion people in the world to do this, you would
win a Nobel Prize. Since I don't think this is likely, we should
concentrate our efforts where they will make a bigger difference.
Blair McClinton
b.mcclinton@sk.sympatico.ca
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