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"one dish" law
amended to be a "one vegan dish" law. To, Mr.
Asif Ali Zardari,
President of Pakistan
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
regarding the decision at the provincial level to serve just one
dish – such as what Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza were required to
adhere to for their wedding celebration – at all official and
unofficial functions in order to save tax payers' money and provide
relief to the poor masses. This is a commendable move. However,
serving just one dish will only truly help conserve resources and
assist the poor if that dish is vegan (pure vegetarian and
containing no animal-derived ingredients). Won't you please
encourage provincial governments to make it a "one vegan dish"
policy? Raising animals for food is grossly
inefficient, because while animals eat large quantities of plants,
they only produce small amounts of meat, dairy products or eggs in
return. It is wasteful to use land to feed crops to farmed animals
rather than use it to feed hungry people – especially when you
consider that it takes 10 kilograms of feed to produce 1 kilogram
of beef, 4 to 5.5 kilograms of grain to produce 1 kilogram of pork
and 2.1 to 3 kilograms of grain to produce 1 kilogram of poultry.
What's more is that producing meat, eggs and dairy foods require
vast amounts of water. It takes about 300 gallons of water per day
to produce food for a vegan, while it takes more than 4,000 gallons
of water per day to produce food for a meat-eater. More water is
saved by not eating a pound of beef than by not showering for an
entire year.
In fact, the food for a vegan can be produced on only 1/6th of an
acre of land, while it takes 3¼ acres of land to produce food for a
meat-eater.
To put it simply, the more meat, eggs and dairy foods people eat,
the fewer people who can be fed. If everyone on Earth received 25
per cent of his or her calories from animal products, only 3.2
billion people could be nourished. Dropping that figure to 15
percent would mean that 4.2 billion people could be fed. If
everyone went vegan, there would be more than enough food to
nourish the world's entire population – more than 6.3 billion
people.
There are other benefits to advocating a vegan diet too. Our most
serious environmental problems – climate change, overexploited
natural resources, deforestation, wasted land and water and air
pollution – as well as today's most serious health problems,
including heart disease and cancer, are all directly linked to the
consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products.
A 2006 United Nations report concluded that the livestock industry
is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to
the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local
to global”The report attributed 18 per cent of annual worldwide
greenhouse-gas emissions to farmed animals, but new research
indicates that the figure could actually be much higher. In
"Livestock and Climate Change", the Worldwatch Institute estimates
that raising animals for food actually accounts for 51 per cent of
all greenhouse-gas emissions.
I hope you agree that if we are to help the poor, the environment
and ourselves – not to mention alleviate animal suffering and have
a much kinder society – we must encourage people to eat vegetables,
grains, beans, lentils and other vegan foods instead of meat, eggs
and dairy products. As George Monbiot of the UK newspaper The
Guardian wrote, "[I]t now seems plain that [a vegan diet] is the
only ethical response to what is arguably the world's most urgent
social justice issue".
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to your
response. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have or
to provide further information. You can contact me at
NikunjS@petaindia.org.
Respectfully yours,
Nikunj Sharma
Senior Campaigns Coordinator
PETA India.
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