Yesterday, when whole of my family went to visit monasteries to observe the holiest day (4th day of the 6th Bhutanese month), we saw a group of well dressed tourists. Attention of my 11 years old daughter was particularly drawn by a women with proportionately larger tag hanging from her neck. The tag reads "Go Veg- Go Green and Save Planet". My daughter couldn't relate how going vegetarian could save our planet and asked me, "Apa, how will going vegetarian help save our planet?". I have to admit that for instance I went dumb, not knowing how to answer. After some thought, I answered her question. My answer was in relation to food production:
1. In order to cater to the meat demand of people, we have to establish diary farms, poultry, piggery and other livestock farms. Which demands huge quantity of livestock food which is directly proportional to the land size required to grow food for these animals. Doing this would decrease the land-size for agricultural crop production failing the demand for food for human consumption. Since humans can't go hungry more forested areas has to converted to agricultural crops ultimately leading to the decrease in forest cover. Population of human being is never going to decrease so does the demand for meat and food. Then I said, "now you know what happens when demand for meat increases. It is a cycle my girl".
2. More number of animals (this has special reference to cattle in our region, south east Asia) means more pooh on the roads and paved roads. Pooh of cows has methane gas which would not only destroy already deteriorating ozone layer but it reduces the longevity of tarmac which demands the re-pavement of roads. More maintenance on tarmac roads mean more demand on the tarmac material which comes from fossil fuels. Draining and burning of fossil fuels at a faster rate mean problem to the environment and problem to run future automobiles.
These two were my justifications for what a women had hanging from her neck.
1. In order to cater to the meat demand of people, we have to establish diary farms, poultry, piggery and other livestock farms. Which demands huge quantity of livestock food which is directly proportional to the land size required to grow food for these animals. Doing this would decrease the land-size for agricultural crop production failing the demand for food for human consumption. Since humans can't go hungry more forested areas has to converted to agricultural crops ultimately leading to the decrease in forest cover. Population of human being is never going to decrease so does the demand for meat and food. Then I said, "now you know what happens when demand for meat increases. It is a cycle my girl".
2. More number of animals (this has special reference to cattle in our region, south east Asia) means more pooh on the roads and paved roads. Pooh of cows has methane gas which would not only destroy already deteriorating ozone layer but it reduces the longevity of tarmac which demands the re-pavement of roads. More maintenance on tarmac roads mean more demand on the tarmac material which comes from fossil fuels. Draining and burning of fossil fuels at a faster rate mean problem to the environment and problem to run future automobiles.
These two were my justifications for what a women had hanging from her neck.
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