Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Hunger Rumblings

The ELCA World Hunger staff and their associates blog about world hunger, its causes and solutions, and anything else they find relevant.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Back to Beef

I just read an interesting report from the Global Policy Forum that makes important connections between food and finance. One little factoid that struck me: more than half of U.S. grain and nearly 40% of world grain is being used to feed livestock. The author of the report cites a 1997 news release from a Cornell ecologist who suggests that the U.S. could feed 800 million people with the grain that livestock eat. Granted, not all the grain that cattle eat is suitable for human consumption (thank you Mark Goetz for pointing that out to me), but again this underscores for me how lowering our own meat consumption could be an effective way to lower food costs and perhaps improve food distribution (to say nothing of the amazing environmental benefits of consuming less meat).

On a related note, Lent is just nine days away (and yes, as you may have already guessed, it is my favorite church season). One way to experiment with consuming less meat would be to practice the ancient and venerable tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays (and Wednesdays if you wish!) for the six weeks of Lent. Or if you're adventurous, you could fast from meat for the whole 40 days. I am tempted to do just that, and I would probably succumb to peer pressure if I heard from enough people who would join me...

David Creech

Labels: , , , ,

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi David,

Actually what I said was that not all the feed that cattle eat is grain. Most of the early growth (to 600 pounds or more in the US) is from forage from pasture or rangeland. Most of this land is not suitable for growing grain.

Mark

February 16, 2009 at 3:09 PM  
Blogger David Creech said...

Mark,
Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps this is what accounts for the disrepancy between the figure I've read of the 10:1 ratio that Bread has reported as 7:1. I'll do a little research to see what I can dig up. Still, though, 50% of our grain on feeding livestock!
Peace,
David

February 16, 2009 at 6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In Time magazine this week there is an article titled, "Eat Your Greens" which talks about the health benefits of "eating green" or lower on the food chain, as well as the major impact it has on the environment. Ironically it is in the February 23, 2009 issue titled, "How Faith Can Heal".

I will join you in the commitment to abstain from meat during Lent!

Blessings,
Mary

February 16, 2009 at 9:55 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home