OUGD505 - SB02 - Ideas and discussion of the human diet/health and food alternatives

My project for SB02 will consist of a concentrration on the subject of food alternatives. I would like top create a visual which represents the idea of 'aalternative food' or 'alternative eating'. 

I will begin the project by researching into how the consumption of meat and sumialr products negatively impacts the planet. 

When animals are raised to be eaten by humans, a lot of land is needed and this means precious water and soil are lost in the process, Trees are destroyed to create land for grazing animals and factories. 

The untreated animal waste then goes onto polluting the earth, rivers, and streams.

The union of concerned scientists has listed meat eating as the second biggest environmental hazard facing the earth (the first being fossil fuel vehicles).

According to a report published by the Worldwatch insitute, 51% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture. 

Cows are an excellent example to use..

 To produce 1 lb of flesh, a cow needs to consume 16 lbs of vegetation. 2,500 gallons of water is needed to produce 1 lb of meat, however only 25 gallons of water is needed to produce a lb of wheat. One burger (the kind you would probably order at McDonald's) uses enough fossil fuel to provide a small car with 20 miles of fuel. 

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Just over 80% of the planets corn and 95% of oats are fed to livestock. The worlds cattle alone today consumes a mass amount of food. The same mass of food is equal to the same caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, which is more than the entire human population. (so It is funny to think that in some countries people are starving to death.)

If were were to stop this kind of usage then this would free up masses of grain and would massively reduce pressure on land. 

(Above information provided by peta.com)

During my research I came across a website called GreenAge

It discussed issues with meat based dietes and how the production and usage of animals creates long term impacts to so amny diffetent aspects of the planet, comapred to that of a plant based diet. Information which links meat based idets to CO2 emmisions on the planet was quite interesting. 

A meat-based diet is responsible for 7.2kg of CO2 emissions, vegetarian diets are responsible for about 3.8 of CO2 per day and vegan diets are 2.9kg per day. The difference between the 3 main diets and their impact on CO2 is staggering. It shows that many people on the planet could well be very unaware of how their diet can lead to long term impacts. 

DEFORISTATION

Deforistation is a concern becasue a lot of flat land is needed to grow animals for eating. When land is changed so much certain species of plants and animals can no longer survive in the same spaces. It also means less trees which then impacts the ability to absorb toxins from our air. 

The damage that is being done to the planet now will have a massive impact on future generations.