Food Resources

15 ENV 300
Environmental Science & Sustainability
Dr. T.M. Mohan kumar
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2
• Wheat – 650 varieties – 588 m. mt. T. / yr

• Rice – 2,600 varieties – 587 m. mt. T. / yr

• Corn – 602 m. mt. T. / yr (Maxico, South America,

North Asia)

• Animal source

3
 Global Dietary Supply
• 2,500 – 3,000 cal / day

• Global avge. – 2,770 cal /day

• North America – 3,692 cal / day = 2,699 + 993

• Central Asia – 2,240 cal / day = 2,120 + 120

• Australia & New Zealand – 34% animal source-highest

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
4
• African countries - < 2,000 cals / day
Angola, Kenya, Mongolia, Somalia, Tanzania,
Zambia, Afghanistan, …….

Malnutrition / Undernourished
• People who receive < 90% of their minimum
dietary intake on a long term

5
 Malnourishment / Undernourishment

• 100 cr people are hungry

• ~ 4 crore die / yr

• of these 50% are 1–5 yrs age

• 1.72 mi. children (<1 yr.) die each year

before turning one.

6
• ~ 12% people of 3rd world countries don’t get
single meal / day

• > 100 children starve to death in South Africa

every day

• ~ 40% of global grain goes to feed cattle &

chickens
7
Bio Fuels

8
 Food and Health in India
● India ranked 102nd in the 2019 Global Hunger
Index (GHI) Report.
●1 in 3 malnourished children in the world
lives in India.

●~ 30 Crore people malnourished - India

● 60% of India’s children < 3 were

malnourished (2005 report)

● Rampant diseases such as dengue, hepatitis,

tuberculosis, malaria and pneumonia.
9
GHI score

10
 ~795 mi. people starving.

11
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4674e.pdf
World Food Production
● Actually the world is producing enough food to feed
everyone for now.
● ~ 40% of global grain goes to feed cattle & chickens

The EARTH can produce enough food for

everyone’s need,
But not for everyone’s greed

● Per capita food availability has risen:

● 1960 – ~2220 kcal/person/day
● 2006-08 – 2790 kcal/person/day
12
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
 World Food Production

● Yet many people in the world still do not have sufficient

income to purchase (or land to grow) enough food.

● Besides, population is projected to 9.6 bi. By – 2050

● >50% will occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where 25%

population is currently undernourished.

13
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
Per Capita Food Availability

http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/12/global-food-challenge-explained-18-graphics 14
 Threats to Future Food Security
● Rising population . Unequal distribution

● Increasing cost . Food Wastage and Spoilage

● Poisons and Adultration . Genetic pollution due to GMOs

● Diversion of food grains as livestock feed and biofuels.

● Reduced productivity world-wide – desertification, droughts, land

degradation, pollution….

● Global climate change: droughts, famines, floods and severe

weather episodes, shifting temperature, rainfall and humidity
patterns

● Loss of crop biodiversity and wild biodiversity 15

Solutions???
● So, we must grow more food…
● drastically improve productivity -technology—
● Industrial agriculture: mechanization, chemical
fertilizers…pesticides… biotechnology
…genetic engineering…
● Technology has solved so many problems for
us…surely this is no different!…
● Right????? ……………………OR NOT??

● When in doubt, lets look at our leaders 16

 What are our leaders doing?
● G8 Summit on Global Food
Crisis and Poverty Alleviation
in 2008.

● Leading industrialized nations

on the island of

● Hokkaido, Japan
● Major focus of the G8 since 2009
is global supply of food.
17
 Summit that's hard to swallow

World leaders enjoy an 18-course banquet as they discuss

how to solve
Global Food Crisis
18
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1032909/Summit-thats-hard-swallow--world-leaders-enjoy-18-course-banquet-discuss-solve-global-food-crisis.html
Theoretical Solution

● Since presently the world already produces

enough food, the hunger problem can be
solved theoretically, to a large extent by
better and more equitable distribution.

● …easier said than done!

19
Food Distribution and World Debt
● The poorest 52 countries (37 in Africa) $376 bi. debt.

● This forces the countries to use their land for growing

cash crops for export.

● This, doesn’t solving the hunger problem.

● Cancelling world debt would will allow them to

recover their economy, agriculture, and technology to
solve their food crisis.
● Will the present world economic order allow this to 20
 Banana Republics
Lorenzo D. Baker, captain of the ship, The Telegraph introduction of the banana fruit to the USA
in 1870.
He bought bananas in Jamaica and sold them in Boston at a 1,000 percent profit.

The banana proved popular with Americans, as a nutritious tropical fruit that was much cheaper
than locally grown apples.
In the mid-1870s, to manage the new industrial-agriculture business enterprise in the countries
of Central America

Banana republic is a political term for a politically unstable country whose economy is
largely dependent on the export of a single limited-resource product, such as fruits or
minerals. It typically has a large, impoverished working class and a ruling plutocracy that
comprises the elites of business, politics, and the military. This politico-economic
oligarchy controls the primary-sector productions and thereby exploits the country's
economy.

Caribbean Countries
Bahamas Bermuda Colombia Costa Rica Cuba
Dominica El Salvador Guatemala Haiti Honduras
Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic 21
 Food Distribution: Wars / Civil war
● Major causes for persistent hunger in a country…often
triggered by resource control issues between govts. and
dissenting groups -Somalia.

● Destroys or disrupts agriculture, economy, food

distribution systems, transportation etc. for extended
periods.

● Often prevents aid (food and medical aid) entering or

reaching those areas of need.

22
 Food Distribution: Market
Facilities and Management

● Public market facilities are inadequate or in a derelict

condition – badly affecting the producers and consumers.

● Unhygenic – Rat and pest-infested warehouses…

● Cold storage – Insufficient, ill-maintained and high-

priced.

23
 Food Distribution: Market
Facilities and Management
● Poor transportation facilities and road infrastructure –
delays.

● This leads to high spoilage of food and hygiene

and safety problems.

● Middlemen.

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Rising and Fluctuating Food Prices
Monthly FAO Price Indices for basic food
commodity groups (1998-2000=100) The poor
consumers and the
poor farmers are the
worst affected.

● Causes:
● Losses in yields due to adverse weather conditions

● Fluctuations in energy costs

● Increased demand due to rising population.

● Diversion of food crops and land for biofuel production

● Financial speculation and price fixing.

● Policy factors.
25
http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1059e/i1059e00.pdf, http://www.helsinki.fi/taloustiede/Abs/DP35.pdf
 Food Miles
● Total distance in miles the food item is transported from
field to plate

● A convenient indicator of sustainability

● Has led to - local production and local consumption in

order to minimize food miles.
● High spoilage rates, high prices for the consumers, high
GHG emissions during transportation, refrigeration etc.

● 100 mile food 26

 Seasonal Food
● Unprocessed / less processed Food
● Seasonal Food
● Unhealthy competition – Import / Export
● Identical produce is simultaneously imported and exported
between developed countries in Europe and America.
● In the name of ‘free trade’, poor and populous countries
cultivate cash crops for export to developed countries, and
import their own food supplies.
27
 Unprocessed / less processed Food
● Processed foods- benefits supermarkets, corporations,
traders, middlemen, etc.
● farmer - into the debt trap of industrial agriculture and
undermining their own food security.
● It leads to the lengthening of the supply chain.
● Need to improve the wider sustainability of the food supply
chain e.g. ethical trading, improved energy efficiency in the
local food sector.
● Reducing transport impacts e.g. cleaner vehicles, improved
logistics, rail freight, etc.

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 Food Wastage
• 1/3rd of the food produced across the globe is
getting wasted (~100 Crore Tonnes)

• Large quantities of prepared food is wasted

world over.

• In Indian Weddings ~ 3,000 T consumable

food reaching waste bins.

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 Food Wastage
Study by G.K.V.K.
• In Bangalore Choultries
– ~17.5% of served food getting wasted.

• i.e., ~10,000 T ≡ Rs. 306 Crores / yr

• Wasted without serving, 4735 T ≡ 140 Crores/yr

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 Food Wastage and Spoilage

● Millions of tons of foodgrains rot in warehouses

● Cold-storage facilities are available for only

10% of India’s perishable food.

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32
Industrial agriculture

● Can industrial agriculture solve the food

crisis?

33
 Corporate Monopolization of
Agriculture
● By end of 2001 worldwide:
● Top 10 agrochemical corporations…84% of the
$30 bi. market
● Top 10 veterinary pharmaceutical companies…
60% of the $13.6 bi. world market.
● 10 pharmaceutical companies…48% of the
$317 bi. world market.
http://www.greens.org/s-r/33/33-03.html 34
 Corporate Monopolization of
Agriculture
● Only 6 corporations controlled 98% of the world’s
market in GM crops.

● The same 6 firms also controlled 70% of the world’s

pesticide market.

● 94% of all GM crops grown worldwide were from 1

company’s germplasm: Monsanto’s - BAYER.

http://www.greens.org/s-r/33/33-03.html 35
Loss of Crop and Wild Biodiversity
● Monopolization of agriculture by seed and
agrochemical MNCs
● Extensive crop monocultures
● Loss of highly adapted and diverse indigenous
crops and landraces
● Reduced resilience to changing climate
● More susceptible to MNCs power politics
● Reduced independence for farmer.
● Debt trap
36
37
38
• Green Revolution

• Gene Revolution
– Genetic Engineering

• Genetic Modification

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 What is Genetic Modification?
• Altering the genes of an organism
• be it a plant, animal or microorganism
• This can be done by altering an existing section of DNA, or inserting
a gene from another organism.

• When a scientist performs genetic modification to a plant, they

insert a foreign gene (called „transgene‟) in the plant‟s own genes.

• From
• One plant to another plant
• A plant to an animal
• A microorganism to a plant
• Example, from a bacterium resistant to pesticide
• Bacteria and GM mice were the first GMOs generated in 1973 and
1974 respectively. In 1982, insulin-producing bacteria were the first
to be commercialized and genetically modified food has been sold
since 1994. 40
• Hybrid seeds are created using traditional breeding methods
where two different but compatible plants are crossbred to create a
new plant—also known as a hybrid.
Honeycrisp apple
• Developed through the University of Minnesota's apple breeding
program, the Honeycrisp is a hybrid produced by breeding two
different apples to create a new, crisper and juicier type of apple.

• A GMO seed is made when scientists take a beneficial trait from

one living thing and adapt that trait to a plant.

Golden Rice Project

• by adding two genes to a rice plant, rice is able to accumulate beta-
carotene in its grains.
• This new type of rice, called Golden Rice, can increase Vitamin-A in
people's diets and help prevent childhood blindness.

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 Gene Revolution

• Solve Food Problem

• Increase Productivity

• More Crop Variety

• Lower production Cost

42
 Risks of Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs)
● “Genetic engineering is not merely causing
genetic pollution of biodiversity and creating
bio-imperialism, monopolies over life itself. It is
also causing knowledge pollution—by
undermining independent science, and
promoting pseudo science. It is leading to
monopolies over knowledge and information.”
–Dr Vandana Shiva |
Author, Activist, Pioneer, Scientific Advisor, Mother
Navdanya www.navdanya.org/

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Risks of Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs)
● Allergies

● Toxins

● New diseases

● Nutritional problems

● Loss of diversity

● Loss of ecological balance

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 Gene Revolution

THE END OF CHOICE

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46
“…The agricultural sciences have over time
become increasingly subordinated to capital
and…this ongoing process has shaped both
the content of research and, necessarily, the
character of the products.”

–Jack Kloppenberg rural sociologist

in
“First the Seed”
47
 “What is profitable affects, or even

determines, what is ‘scientifically true.’

–Hugo de Vries
(biologist)

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Climate Change To Reduce Yields

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 Impacts on Land
In the past 20 yrs.:
● Tropical forests lost to agriculture: 15 mi. ha/yr
● tremendous loss of genetic diversity.

● Soil erosion and other forms of land degradation: 5-7

mi. ha of farming land/yr.

● Waterlogging and salination: 1.5 mi. ha/yr.

● Other damaged land: 30 mi. ha

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FAOPromotesOrganicAgriculture.php
50
 Impacts on Land: Irreversible Land
Degradation
● South Asia: ~ 50% land degraded and
useless for food production.

● China: 27% irreversible loss of land for

agriculture, loss rate (2,500 sq. km /year).

● Madagascar: 30% of the arable land

irreversibly barren.
●^ a b c Ron Nielsen, The Little Green Handbook, Picador, New York (2006) ISBN 0-312-42581-3
●^ UNEP, Global Environmental Outlook 2000, Earthscan Publications, London, UK (1999) which may also be viewed at

http://www.unep.org/geo2000/ov-e/index.htm, including an optional PDF download 51

 World Soil Degradation
About 2 bi. ha of soil, (~15% of Earth's land area), an area larger
than the United States and Mexico combined, have been degraded
through human activities.

52
http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/food-and-soil.php
Summing up Corporate Agriculture
● Agriculture related firms - form a nexus

● Seed firms; agrochemical concerns; agroforestry; veterinary

services and medicine; food industry; biotechnology;
pharmaceuticals; nanotech, bioinformatics.

● Approximately 12 firms control 75% of this market.

● These corporations are not committed to humanitarian ends—i.e.,
feeding and curing people, or tackling hunger or disease.
● Instead, they are committed – Profit
● The name of the game is, privatize benefits and socialize
costs.
http://www.greens.org/s-r/33/33-03.html 53
Industrial Agriculture
● Farmers cannot indulge in "unauthorized seed-saving”.
Patent violation…lawsuits.
● hybrids, Terminator Technology (sterile seeds).
● Must purchase seed for the next season from the seed
corporation…at ever-increasing prices.
● Newer seeds need higher and higher inputs of newer and
specific pesticides and fertilizers…purchased from the
same MNCs.
● Repeated borrowing becomes necessary
● Crop failures or inability to sell crops at a suitable price
causes the debt to spiral out of control…farmer suicides.
54
Industrial Agriculture
● The excessive fertilizers degrades
land…depleted soil carbon, deficiency of
micronutrients, loss of soil biota, eutrophication
and pollution of waterways.
● Excessive irrigation: water logging, salinization
of soils, groundwater depletion.
● Excessive pesticides, herbicides: pollution of
air, land and water,

55
• Prices

56
Vegetarianism and Sustainability

: “One of the best ways to fight global warming

is to adopt a vegetarian diet”. Speech in Geneva,
January 15, 2008
Dr R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of IPCC

57
 A Crowded Earth
World
● Meat production 1950—1997 (44 → 211 million tons)
● surged nearly 5-fold

● Per capita meat production 36 kg (> 2x of 1950 level)

● Fish harvest 1950-2000 (21 → 120 mi. tons)…

● surged 6-fold

● per capita consumption tripled.

● ~6 bi. humans share the Earth's natural resources with

nearly 1 bi. pigs, 1.3 bi. cows, 1.8 bi. sheep and goats,
and 13.5 bi. chickens. (~ 3 heads of livestock/ person)
58
World's Livestock Population Growth

Livestock 1960 1997 Increase

(billion) (billion) (percent)
Cattle 0.94 1.33 42
Sheep and
1.34 1.77 32
Goats
Pigs 0.41 0.94 131
Chickens 3.90 13.41 244

Humans 3.08 5.85 90

Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOStats, 21

59
June 1998.
Country-wise Meat Consumption
Country (kg meat/person/yr) Beef Pork Poultry Mutton Total
United States 44 31 48 1 123
Germany 16 54 15 1 86
Italy 26 35 19 2 82
United Kingdom 16 25 27 6 74
Brazil 36 9 24 - 70
New Zealand 37 - - 29 66
China 5 35 11 2 53
Russia 19 13 13 1 46
Japan 12 17 12 1 40
Egypt 8 - 6 1 16
India 1 - 1 1 3
Indonesia - - 2 - 2
All Industrial Nations 21 25 24 2 72
All Developing Nations 5 11 7 1 24
60
 Poison in our kitchen:
How deadly chemicals have invaded India's food chain ?

• Coffee - may have coffee-flavoured mud, starch or worse?

coal tar dye? - lung or skin cancer.

• Apple juice - It may just have fungi patulin.

• Ice-cold milk - Brace for a jolt of deadly chemicals.

• Antibiotic gentamicin, pumped indiscriminately into cows,

- hard-to-treat infections.

• Pesticide boric acid that kills cockroaches - lead

poisoning.

• Preservative formalin that can change your kidneys forever.61

Prepared using Urea and Detergent,
then processed using Sulphuric acid

62
LUDHIANA: Around 68.7 per
cent of milk and milk products
sold in the country is not as
per the standards laid down
by the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India
(FSSAI), a member of the
Animal Welfare Board said
Wednesday.
63
64
65
66
67
• June-2018

68
69
70
• Feelings of
"Chinese restaurant
syndrome,"
• Ajinomoto
• Monosodium Maggi was banned by Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in June
glutamate 2015 for five months –lead beyond permissible
limits.
• Pb – 4.5 ppm

71
• Wolf of food street
With the great instant noodle scare in the last few days, a fear psychosis has gripped the
nation. Every food on your plate is suspect: all the items above have been recorded, reported
or recalled by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ever since it came into
being in 2011. Harmful, dangerous, alien chemicals and non-foods are secretly invading our
lives, as a culture of infectious greed grips much of our food chain: from farm to fork. At any
given point, someone somewhere along multiple touch points on that chain is trying to get
rich by altering, substituting, passing off or turning a blind eye to unacceptable processes and
materials. A terrible human and economic cost looms large.

• India is the world's worst food violator, reports global food

source monitoring company, Food Sentry. China follows closely and the US is
also one of the top 10. Most violated foods are raw or minimally processed, including
seafood, vegetables, fruits, spices, dairy products, meats and grains. More than a third of
food frauds take place due to "excessive or illegal pesticides", pathogen contamination and
filth or insanitary conditions. "What's worrying is the mislabelling on products of packaged
foods," says Dr Suneeta Chandorkar, Assistant Professor, Department of Food and Nutrition,
Faculty of Family and Community Services, MS University, Vadodara. "They all say 'healthy'
but tests have shown they are hardly that.“
72
• A very serious issue
A "really very serious issue," as Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda admitted in the budget session of
Parliament in March. One out of fi ve food samples fails quality test in India, reports the FSSAI
Annual Public Laboratory Testing Report, 2014-15. Out of 49,290 food samples tested by the apex
food body, 8,469 did not clear the laboratory tests for food safety, bringing the rate of food fraud
rate-adulteration, contamination or mislabelling to a gasp-worthy 20 per cent. It was just 13 per
cent in 2011-12. Yet the number of convictions for economically motivated adulteration of food has
come down from 3,845 in 2013-14 to just 1,256 now.
• Data collated by FSSAI from across the country shows a steep rise in food fraud, with five states-UP,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh-accounting for more than 90 per cent of
the total penalties levied. It's a very serious issue because the true extent of the impact of
adulterated food on human health remains unknown. Food-borne dis-eases encompass a wide
spectrum of illnesses and are a growing public health problem worldwide, says the World Health
Organization (WHO) in its World Health Day 2015 report, 'How Safe Is Your Food'. Gastrointestinal,
neurological, gynaecological, immunological to multi-organ failure and even cancer. They can
manifest immediately with microbial pathogens or parasites, as in the case of about 400,000
children below age five whodie of diarrhoea every year in India. Or they can be chemical
contaminants that accumulate in the body and snuff out life slowly over time. The full extent of the
burden and cost of unsafe food is currently unknown, says the WHO, but its impact on global
health, trade and development is considered to be immense.

73
 World Food Day
• 16th October
in recognition of foundation of UN-FAO -1945
The World Food Day theme for 2012 is
"Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world“

The World Food Day theme for 2013 is

“Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”

The World Food Day theme for 2014 is

"Feeding the world, caring for the earth “
74
 World Fisheries Day
• 21st November
• in recognition of World Forum of Fish Harvesters
& Fish Workers
to highlight the importance of maintaining the
world's fisheries.

75
76
 Food Crisis: What can you do?
● Support local produce: local farmers, retailers
● Grow your own food: urban gardens, community
gardens/farms, terrace gardens.
● Adopt low input, small-scale, biodiverse,
organic/natural farming methods integrated with
sustainable land and watershed management.
● Both farmers and consumers should support crop
diversity. Plant and purchase delicious and
nutritious minor millets, pulses and vegetables.
77
 Food Crisis: What can you do?
● Avoid MNC-marketed hybridized/GM crops and
products.
● Eat home-cooked, fresh food; avoid preserved,
processed or junk food.
● Be vegetarian: Spare the grain for hungry humans. Have
a heart! “Don’t turn your stomach into a graveyard for
unfortunate dead animals!”—Lokmanya Tilak
● Farmer microfinancing options
● Local community-operated warehousing, cold storage
and food processing/preservation industry for farmers to
survive unfair price-fixing, and market crashes.
78
79
Per Capita Protein Intake: Sources

● "10 kcalories (kilogram-calories or 'large calories') of exosomatic

energy are spent in the U.S. food system per calorie of food eaten
by the consumer. Put another way, the (US) food system consumes
ten times more energy than it provides to society in food energy."80
 Meat Eating and Health Problems
● The avg. American consumes nearly twice his or
her weight in meat each year.
● High growth in consumption of meat (esp. high-
fat meat), dairy products and eggs—more
cholesterol, saturated fat, and protein.
● Global epidemic of lifestyle diseases: heart
attacks, strokes and cancers.
● Chinese government to limit the country's meat
consumption: to avoid massive health care costs
(100s of bi. of USD)
https://www.worldwatch.org/node/1626 81
In China a recent shift to meat-heavy diets
has been linked to increases in obesity,
cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and
colorectal cancer.

82
 Superiority of Plant Protein

● Professor Colin Campbell: “There is a mountain

of compelling evidence that so called “low
quality” plant protein which allows for slow but
steady synthesis of new proteins is the healthiest
type of protein”

83
 “Heart Attack Proof” Diet

● Diets of Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell

Esselstyn keep cholesterol levels below 150, the
level below which no one has ever suffered a
heart attack.

84
At the turn of the century, heart disease and
cancer used to cause 8% and 4% of deaths.

Now they cause 36% and 22% of deaths.

85
"The vast majority, perhaps 80 percent to 90
percent, of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and
other forms of degenerative illness can be
prevented, at least until very old age, simply by
adopting a plant-based diet.“

Dr. T. Colin Campbell

Cornel University

86
 Healthy Human Diet

● For infants: mother’s milk.

● For adults: fruits, vegetables and whole grains,
pulses, nuts .

Barry A. Popkin, Scientific American, June, 2008

87
Meat Eating—A Net Drain on
Economy?

● Conservative estimate: excessive meat

consumption linked to health care costs of $60—
120 bi./yr in USA.
● Domestic cash receipts for the meat industry
totaled roughly $100 billion in 1997.
● It is possible that this industry is a net drain on the
American economy.

…Dr. Colin Campbell of Cornell University 88

 Starvation Deaths

● 1 person dies every second directly or indirectly due to

hunger…4000/hr…100,000/day…36 mi. /yr
● 58 % of all deaths are due to hunger (2001-2004
estimates)
● 1 child dies every 5 seconds directly or indirectly due to
hunger…700/hr…16,000/day…6 mi./yr.
● 60% of all child deaths are due to hunger (2002-2008
estimates)

89
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation
 Saving Grain for the Hungry

● The world already produces enough food for the

present 7 billion people; could even support double —
12 billion people.
● But 36 % of world's grain (21% in developing countries
and 70% in industrial nations) feeds livestock, poultry,
and fish farms…inefficient converters of grain
● 1 kg meat ➔ ~7 kg of grain (corn or wheat)…human
food!
● 670 mi. tons of the world's grain used for feed could
feed 800 mi. people.
● In 2007, 923 mi. undernourished.
90
Saving Grain for the Hungry

● 10% of this feed (67 mi. tons of grain) could

sustain 225 mi. people or keep up with
world population growth for the next three
years.
● If each American reduced his meat
consumption by only 5 %, (1 dish
less/week); the 7.5 mi. tons of grain saved,
could feed all the 25 mi. people going
hungry in the US each day.
91
 Inefficiency of Protein Production
USA:
● 7 bi. livestock heads consume 5x grain consumed
by the entire American population.
● 41 mi. tons/yr of plant protein is fed to U.S.

livestock to produce 7 mi. tons of animal protein

for human consumption.
● 26 mi. tons of the livestock feed comes from
grains and 15 mi. tons from forage crops.
● 1 kg of high-quality animal protein produced,
consumes 6 kg of plant protein. 92
 Energy
● In the USA, 20 times as much energy is required
to produce one calorie of animal food as is
required to produce one calorie of vegetable
food

93
 Energy Consumption

(Fuel input): (Protein (Fossil Fuel input

produced) Kcal): Protein
Chicken 4:1 produced Kcal)
Beef 54:1
Lamb 50:1
Turkey 13:1
Pork 17:1
Eggs 26:1
Milk 14:1 * Figure pertains to grain farming
by conventional methods. This can
Grains 3.3:1* be made drastically more efficient
by using natural farming methods.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs.html 94
Contribution to Global Climate
Change

● World’s livestock production is the largest

source of anthropogenic methane
emissions…EPA
● Livestock herds account for ~ 25 % of
anthropogenic emissions of
methane…climate change.
● Stagnant waste lagoons of factory-farm
operations emit an additional 5 % percent of
human-induced methane.
95
 Water Use
● U.S. agriculture accounts
Gallons of water to
for 87 % of all the fresh produce 1 lb of various
water consumed each year.
foods (236)
● Livestock direct use 1.3 %
● Livestock total use ~ 50 %
( incl. forage and grain
production for livestock)
● 1 kg beef takes 100 tons of
water
● 1kg wheat takes 0.9 tons
of water
● 1 kg potatoes 0.5 tons of
96
water
 Water

● To produce 1 lb. of feedlot beef requires 7 lbs.

of feed grain, which takes 7,000 lbs. of water
to grow.

97
One half of all US water resources
are used to grow meat.

98
Pass up one hamburger, and you'll save as
much water as you save by taking 40
showers with a low-flow nozzle.

1 = 40

99
Meat eaters require 14 times as much
water for their diets as do vegetarians.

100
 Water Pollution
● For example, shifting from pork to chicken requires
half the grain, and hence half as much water.
● The massive quantities of waste produced by
livestock and poultry threaten rivers, lakes and
other waterways with pollution, toxic algal blooms
and massive fishkills.
● US livestock waste is 130 times that produced by
humans. ,
● Livestock farms are getting larger throughout the
world.
101
 Water Pollution

● According to the Environmental Protection

Agency, factory farming pollutes U.S.
waterways more than all industrial sources
combined.

102
In the U.S., livestock now produce 130 times as much
waste as people do. Just one 50,000 acre hog farm in Utah,
for example, produces more sewage than the city of Los
Angeles!!

103
 Land
Number of people whose caloric
● According to needs can be met on 2.5 acres of
scientists at the land for the following foods (294)
Smithsonian
Institute, the
equivalent of seven
football fields of
land is bulldozed
every minute, much
of it to create more
room for farmed
animals. 104
80% of all US agricultural is used in some way
to raise animals—that's roughly half of the total
land mass of the U.S.

105
 Diet and Land Requirement
S. No. Diet Area (sq. Population that can be supported
yards)/capi by Earth. (multiples of 1985
ta population of ~5 bi.)

1. Grains 200 60
2. Potatoes 600 20
3. Milk 1500 8
4. Pork 4000 3
5. Beef 10000 1

Masanabu Fukuoka (translated by Frederic P. Metreaud) “The Natural Way of Farming – The Theory and
106
Practice of Green Philosophy” 1985 Japan Publications Inc. ISBN 0-87040-613-2.
 Forest

● Of the Amazonian rain forest

cleared in South America,
more than 38 percent has
been used for ranching.

107
More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest
have been cleared to create cropland to
grow grain to feed farmed animals.

108
 Soil

● “85% of topsoil erosion (wind and water) in USA is due

to raising animals for food” …Howard Lyman (American
Mad Cow Activist)…
● This is 13 times above the sustainable rate.
● >302 mi. ha devoted to producing feed for the U.S.
livestock population (272 mi. ha pasture and 30 mi. ha.
cultivated feed grains)
● Iowa: Topsoil loss at 30x soil formation rate. Lost 50%
of topsoil in just 150 years of farming—soil that took
thousands of years to form. 109
 Animal Slaughter and Torture
Before Being Killed
● Every year, nearly 9 billion animals are killed for
food in the United States alone!!
● Video: Can you Face the Reality of Factory Farming?
(6.08min)
● Video: Meet Your Meat (12.48)
● Whether animals are raised in factory farms, or in
open farms, the slaughter, the pain, the suffering
and death are common and inevitable.

110
 Food, Spirituality and Humanity

● When plentiful vegetarian food is available.

● Yet, humans insist on consuming non-
vegetarian food.
● It is simply for the sake of one’s tongue.
● This is needless “himsa” (unjustified violence).
● The highest Dharma (righteousness) is
refraining from unjustified violence (ahimsa).
● Do we not have any sympathy for the sorrow
and suffering of other living beings?

111
 Vegetarianism and Spirituality
● The dying animal says “As this person (sah) is killing
and consuming me (mam) in this lifetime, so shall I
kill and consume him in my next lifetime.” This is
real meaning of the word ‘mamsah’ (meat) as
explained by the wise ones. --Shastras
● The butcher kills for the sake of those who buy and
consume the meat.
● All are fellow-conspirators in the killing.
● As per the law of karma, every action has an equal
and opposite reaction. It is inevitable.
● So all of them face the same end in their next birth.

112
 Reducing Meat: Win-Win
Situation
● Massive reductions in meat consumption in industrial
nations will ease the healthcare burden while improving
public health
● Declining livestock herds will take pressure off of
rangelands and grainlands, allowing the agricultural
resource base to rejuvenate.
● Lowering meat consumption worldwide will allow more
efficient use of land and water resources. Relevant for
increasing population.
● Make grain more affordable to the world's chronically
hungry.
● Humanity becomes more human! 113
 Reducing Meat: Win-Win
Situation
● Massive reductions in meat consumption in industrial
nations will ease the health care burden while improving
public health
● Declining livestock herds will take pressure off of
rangelands and grainlands, allowing the agricultural
resource base to rejuvenate.
● Lowering meat consumption worldwide will allow more
efficient use of land and water resources. Relevant for
increasing population.
● Make grain more affordable to the world's chronically
hungry.
114
“When human beings come to understand
that animals also experience pleasure and
pain they will acquire a new dimension of
wisdom. It is because of our human sense of
duty and our higher understanding that we
should be sympathetic to all living beings.”

P.R. Sarkar

115
116
• Who stole my Maggi?
Everybody is singing a requiem to a ubiquitous yellow packet: mothers tired of cooking for fussy
children, students living away from home, professionals too busy to cook, frugal retirees skittish
about the purse strings. Iconic brand Maggi, that asked for "just two minutes of your time" for the
past 33 years, has been declared "hazardous for human consumption" by the FSSAI. It will not be
made, processed, distributed, sold or imported in the country. Although Swiss food giant Nestle
India has challenged the validity of the tests, 20 million packs worth Rs 1,000 crore are being
recalled.
• "Adulteration in our daily food items has been proved time and again. But this is not just another
case. This is heavy metal, completely the next level," says Amit Khurana, programme manager for
food safety and toxins at the Centre for Science and Environment. "I am unable to figure out how
the lead came in Maggi samples," says Chandorkar. Lead mostly comes from industrial effluents. In
India, crops and vegetables draw it from water. "It could have been from a machine part gone
wrong," she adds. To Narpinder Singh, president of the Association of Food Scientists and
Technologists, India, however, adulteration from MNCs selling processed and packaged food is just
the tip of the iceberg. "What about our street vendors? There's no monitoring over what they use,"
he says. The investigation over Maggi noodles will pinpoint the guilty parties. But the scandal lifts
the lid off the casserole of India's real food story

117
• Sadism for breakfast
Nothing seems more wholesome than breaking an egg into a frying pan for breakfast. But do you wish to die of
green diarrhoea from salmonella poisoning? Random sampling shows 5-7 per cent eggs across India are
contaminated with the deadly bacteria. According to a 2012 research from the Indian Veterinary Research
Institute, most of these happen from inhumane conditions, overcrowded cages, saturation with excrement and
waste streams. That's not all, across India exists the widespread practice, though legally banned, of starving hens
for profit. By depriving egg-laying hens of food for 14 days, poultry-owners can save expenses on feed and
manipulate the egg-laying cycle. The suffering and drastic weight loss dramatically increases the risk of a hen
laying salmonella-infected eggs.
• Consider bread: if you thought good bread lies at the heart of a blissful day, think again. The flour used to make
your daily bread, roti, chapati or parantha is also bleached, contains as many as 25 different chemicals, including
fumigants, apart from mud, dust, insects and fungus. The result? Liver problems to diabetes to damaged kidneys
and nervous system. What's more, scientists are sounding alarm over mycotoxin contamination in wheat, oats,
maize and barley, from bad agricultural practice. Ask Sakshi Mishra, researcher with the Indian Institute of
Toxicology Research, Lucknow, who detected the poisonous fungi in 30 per cent samples, out of which seven per
cent exceeded the limit. A report published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture last year found
excessive levels in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The fungi can cause a range of disorders: jaundice
to gastrointestinal bleeding.
• Surely, one can bite into fruits, for all the goodness of antioxidants, healthful nutrients and fibre? But there too
unscrupulous traders can beat you at it. In April, 12,000 kg mangoes that had been ripened artificially with the
chemical ethephon, a plant growth regulator classified as "dangerous" and "corrosive", had to be destroyed in Goa
by food safety officials. The fruit vendor, looking to make a quick buck, was quite aware of what he was doing: he
had donned plastic gloves to dip the mangoes in the chemical.

118
• Food detectives at war
It's a neatly-wrapped packet of suspicion and doubt. Someone thrusts it in through a square hole in the wall. Instantly weighed, checked and
barcoded, it begins its journey through the food testing lab in Barasat, on the outskirts of Kolkata: clean-air showers, inoculation room for sterility,
chromatography room to check nutrition, spectrophotometer room to verify colouring. Scientists in white coats and blue overalls crouch in
concentrated silence over gleaming white machines that hum, whir and spew out data: heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics, carcinogens. They are
the behind-the-scenes food detectives of Edward Food Research and Analysis Centre (EFRAC), a top-line private lab with 12 accreditations from the
Government of India and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). And they stand by their science: none of the 800 samples of
Maggi they tested in the last one month has unacceptable levels of harmful chemicals. "My machines are 21 CFR Part 11 compliant," says CEO and
microbiologist Balwinder Bajwa, "the USFDA's new enforcement for food security. I am not certifying Maggi. I am certifying my results."
• That has put yet another question mark on the fate of our food: why have some labs found lead and MSG in Maggi while others did not? Can we trust
our labs? Lead contamination in several samples was established by many laboratories in various parts of the country. But some states have given it a
clean chit. About 11 states have already banned Maggi and as many have started testing it individually. Industry veteran and former CEO of Britannia,
Sunil Alagh, has lambasted the food testing process in the country as "disastrous", blaming the government for destroying a brand. "I agree with
@sunilalagh about destroying Maggi brand without proper evidence. I smell a sinister ploy and Nestle must get to bottom of it," Kiran Mazumdar
Shaw, chief of Biocon, has tweeted.
• "The blame game doesn't help what India faces," says consumer policy expert Bejon Misra. We have great choice and access to food today. Our
supermarkets overflow with packaged, processed foods from all over the world. But what we believe we eat is often at odds with what we actually
consume. "So severe has been thepublic outrage that it has ushered in a much-needed groundswell for a firmer governance of our food chain," he
says. "For the first time, the government has lodged a case against a food giant with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on
behalf of consumers."
• Many companies don't conduct due diligence on their supply chains. And then get away by paying a small penalty. "India is finally moving towards
enforcement of food recall regulations. And it should be respected," adds Mishra. Companies with unsafe products will now have to inform
consumers about contaminants, health hazards, outlets where it was found and a contact number for queries.
• The FSSAI is in no mood to relent. Formed under the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006, and effective since 2011, the fledgling body is
determined to net both whales and minnows to ensure food safety and standards. In the last few years, it has dragged food and beverage majors-
Heinz to Marico, Kellogg's to Britannia, Cadbury to Hindustan Unilever, Parle to Amway-for a range of reasons: misleading ads to unsafe use or
overuse of chemicals. In May this year, theFSSAI ordered recall of energy drinks Monster, Tzinga and Cloud 9, arguing that the drinks use "irrational
combination" of ginseng and caffeine. In January 2015, the FSSAI started a nationwide survey and testing of everyday foods-dairy, pulses, edible oil,
poultry, fruits and vegetable-to frame policy interventions against adulteration and contamination.

119
• New methods, new dangers
Watch out for the new kid on the block. It has come straight from the Shaanxi province of China and flooded the markets of Kerala. At a glance it
looks like normal rice: the reason why no one bothered to look too closely. It's smooth, slippery, milky white with every single grain formed perfectly.
If you soak it in water, it will float. If you boil it, it will turn into a hard sticky mass, like wax paper. If you put fire to it, it will light up instantly. And if
you eat it, you will land up in hospital with severe stomach condition-exactly what happened in Kerala. Made of potatoes, sweet potatoes and
polymer at a paltry production cost, it's the latest food fraud in the country: fake plastic rice. The packets were confiscated once people started
falling ill after buying the rice.
• Adulteration methods are increasingly more sophisticated. Detection systems have to be more alert, say experts. Simple adulteration of fruit juices
by addition of water, or stones in rice are now giving way to deadly pesticides, non-permitted synthetic colours, slapdash use of antibiotics and DNA-
altering carcinogens. Under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of India, 1954, eight synthetic colours were mentioned; the list has now become
long, with lethal synthetic colouring-say, metanil yellow to make turmeric, spices and pulses look fresh or red lead oxide to add shine to chilli powder,
coloured sweets and pickles-taking its toll on the human body on prolonged use. "That's because of the tardy implementation of regulations and lack
of stringent quality control exercised by the manufacturers of processed foods," says Ramesh V. Bhat, international food safety consultant and
former head of the food toxicology division at the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad. "Most of the state government food inspectors and lab
analysts spend their time in courts, chasing pending cases," he says.
• The infrastructure to check adulteration in the states remains woefully shabby. Take Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state in the country. It has just five
public analyst labs: in Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Jhansi. They all date back to the 1980s and do not have the wherewithal to execute
complex cases that need modern technology or adequate manpower. Two labs, in Gorakhpur and Jhansi, are running without a public analyst officer.
The rest share one officer amongst themselves. About 430 posts of food inspectors are lying vacant, while technical manpower stands at just 40 per
cent. The shortage tells its own story. Data from the Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) shows that just 30 per cent of 43,512
food samples sent to these labs got tested in 2014-15. A public analyst officer says on the condition of anonymity, "There is a rule that tests must be
completed within 14 days. But now even the simplest cases take more than a month." Similarly in Rajasthan, about 73 food safety officers, working in
just six testing labs, are supposed to execute at least 10 samples every month.

120
• Wake up and smell the coffee
For the average urban Indian, food accounts for 50 per cent of the household budget. It's the
biggest item of expenditure, reports the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (2014).
Cereals and pulses top the list, followed by vegetables and fruits. Then come milk, meat,
eggs, fish and edible oils. Snacks account for four per cent, with just one per cent being spent
on noodles. The shock and anger over Maggi instant noodles is worth just that much.
Beneath that, there's a cauldron of dangerous criminal activity that violates our rights to
health and life with appalling disregard: fish contaminated with ammonia and formaldehyde,
to preserve it just like dead bodies in a mortuary; farm animals contaminated with antibiotics
to make them grow faster and keep them alive in the worst unsanitary conditions; fruits and
vegetables coloured with copper sulphates and injected with hormone oxytocin to make
them look fresh and inviting.
• That's 49 per cent of the home economy down the drain, as we live at a higher risk every day.
Yet there is no outrage, no controversy, not one complaint. Who is responsible for what is
happening to our food? "The consumer," says Balvinder Bajwa, who witnesses, samples and
quantifies in his lab every day what goes into our plate. "We want everything cheap. And
there is a competition to pander to people like us. That leads to unfair trade practices." Be
willing to pay a higher price for your health, he says. Insist ongetting your money's worth. Cut
down the underhand operators. Support more inspection, enforcement, criminal
prosecution. 121
• To Narpinder Singh, it's the woefully low benchmarks we have as a nation that gets in the
But per capita food consumption varies,
worldwide,
from ~1500 lbs
per year in
America, to

~1000 lbs per year

in Mediterranean/
Middle East region, and

about 500 lbs per year in

India and South Asia. 122