At HIPPO we believe that compassion is indivisible. We do not have to choose the lesser of two evils. Helping the poor and hungry people of the world to get enough to eat does not have to cause suffering to animals. Eating animal products is a major cause of the problem of world food shortage and not even a part of the solution.
Why?
One man’s meat is another man’s starvation . . . Farm animals waste food. 90% of what they consume is used to maintain and replace their body cells and to produce energy, warmth, skin, hair, horn, bone, and methane. Only 10% on average is recoverable as meat or milk. Britain imports over 30 million tonnes per year of vegetable protein foods to support its farm livestock enough to provide the protein needs of at least 300 million human beings. In addition we use three quarters of our own agricultural land to grow foodstuffs for animals, not just grass but most of the cereals etc. 50 million people consume the resources that could feed 500 million! We also import meat e.g. 250,000 tonnes per year of beef and veal, much of it from Africa. The world cannot equitably support carnivorous people who require 10 acres of agricultural land each to feed them when there is only ½ acre per person in the world. The meat habit takes massive amounts of land from people in other countries who desperately need to keep it.