It’s World Animal Day and if there’s one area where animals have the rawest deal, it’s probably in satisfying our carnivorous cravings.
Every year, 280 million tonnes of meat are produced around the world. India alone produces 59.5 lakh tonnes.
But for the most part, we haven’t figured out a way to kill large quantities of animals in a way that minimises pain. So here’s a look at what would happen if we suddenly stopped eating meat.
First, food emissions — from cows farting to trucking meat all over the place — would drop by 60 percent. That’s quite significant given one-third of the gas emissions that are heating our planet up come from food production.
Second, our health would dramatically improve. Yes, we need a varied diet to stay healthy, but as with many things in life, we tend to overdo it. Cutting out meat already curbs 7 million deaths per year, and if the whole world went vegetarian, mortality could drop a whole 10 percent!
Third, we’d get a lot of land back. 68% of the world’s surface is occupied by our four-legged friends. If they weren’t around, we could restore carbon-capturing ecosystems and absorb a decent chunk of the pollution we’ve belched into the atmosphere.
Of course, it’s not as simple as just cutting out meat, and millions of people around the world rely on livestock to survive, so a meatless world is an unlikely scenario.
But science is coming to the rescue, because researchers are working hard to develop lab-grown meat. They’ve almost got the taste down and now they’re trying to bring costs down. So before we know it, meat may be served on a petri dish!
Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim
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