Wagner Ona

Should we all become vegetarian?

Eating meat has been an essential part of human evolution for 2.3 million years, it
provided a dense form of nutrients and protein, and it still does until now. Meat is the
most convenient protein source available and most of the people eat it. However we do
need to consider what being a meat eater means, we need to consider how much energy
is lost at each link in a food chain, and the energy that was once originally stored by the
autotrophic plants is dissipated across the good chain. The more links that there is the
more unusable energy.
Being a vegetarian has many advantages on top of being a meat eater. Other than not
being cruel and killing animals for food, a vegetarian diet can help worlds hunger. Over 10
pounds of plant protein are used to produce one pound of beef protein. If these grains
were fed to humans instead of animals more food would be available for the millions of
people in hunger. The grain that is fed to animals reared for human consumption and
loses 90 percent of energy from the original grain. The 760 million tons of grain fed to
animals every year could cover the global food shortages 14 times, this is what is
estimated.
In my opinion I think that being a vegetarian can reduce the amount of people that suffer
from hunger, as we can see that 1 hectare produces potatoes for 22 people but 1 beef for
1 person, but if we consider what meat has we can see this the other way. Raising beef is
often the most efficient way to produce food for humans. About 85 percent of US grazing
land are not suitable for raising crops that humans can eat. Meat also provides a better
source iron than a vegetarian diet. As the body absorbs 15 to 35 percent of the heme iron
in meat, but only absorbs 2 to 20 percent in non-heme found in vegetarian sources.
Becoming a vegan will not be the solution for world hunger, they are not hungry because
people in wealthy countries eat too much meat, but because one of the main problems is
economics and distribution, according to the food and agriculture organization of UN.
In conclusion I do not think that we all should become vegetarians, it may sound healthier
and as studies have shown that it can produce food for many people who are suffering for
malnutrition the answer would not be for we all to become vegans, as studies also have
showed that meat provide better source of iron, it is more efficient to produce and
currently the world produces enough food for everybody, but many people do not have
access to it. And finally everybody has a different lifestyle that includes different foods in
their life.

Wagner Ona

Sources:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/lmexer10.htm#pyramids
http://vegetarian.procon.org/
https://www.google.com.ec/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uac
t=8&ved=0CFEQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saawinternational.org%2FVeggies_are_g
ood_for_the_environment_v3.ppt&ei=YO10U8_qGY-
QqAa204KQBw&usg=AFQjCNHZUGGnBmTWJHD-
l_pgnWO3sCs7Pw&bvm=bv.66699033,d.b2k
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/why-go-veg-learn-about-becoming-a-
vegetarian/