The-F-Word.org

Several days ago, The Enquirer ran an Associated Press about how rising beer prices have left German beer drinkers “weeping in their steins,” as farmers abandon barley — the raw material for the national beverage — to plant other, subsidized crops for sale as environmentally friendly biofuels.

Today, the Enquirer’s editorial department asks:

It raises a philosophical and moral issue: In a world where millions starve each year, should food crops be diverted to non-food uses?

I find it highly ironic that only now when beer prices are threatened does the question about food crops efficiency arise. Instead of questioning if crops should be used towards cleaner, more sustaining forms of energy, we need to be asking why food crops continue to fund an industry that starves the planet.

Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food; it’s caused by a scarcity of compassion.

It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. Ninety percent of the protein in grain is wasted by cycling it through livestock. On the land it takes to feed one meat-eating person, 20 vegetarians could be fed. Each day, more than 40,000 children starve to death, even though enough grain is consumed by American livestock every day for every human on earth to have two loaves of bread.

If Americans were to cut their meat consumption by a mere 10 percent, it would free enough grain to feed everyone on the planet who is literally starving to death. Imagine if Americans were to cut their meat consumption by, say 40 percent. We might be able to solve world hunger and produce cleaner fuels.