Vegetarians are helping the fight against hunger

Here we sit at the threshold of a new year...a new decade.

While I oppose making resolutions for the simple reason that I rarely keep them, I think we should take a look at the possibility of trying to help those who eat meat find a few reasons to, at least, cut back on the quantity they consume, if not cut it out all together. But, please, don't preach...nothing turns people away from your ideas so much as shoving them down their throats.

But, for the sake of the 1 in 6 people on the planet who do not have enough food to eat, we should stop feeding so much of the food that could sustain those people to the animals that are to be slaughtered to make Big Macs.

Remember when your mom used to tell you that there were starving children in Africa or Asia who would love to have that food you wanted to leave on your plate. She was right. More than a BILLION people - a good number of them in "first world countries" like the  US and Canada - go to sleep at the end of the day having had nothing to eat.

More than 17 million people in the US - a country where millions of pounds of food are thrown out each day by people who don't finish what's on their plates - are malnourished. In a country most known for obesity, children are going to sleep hungry and malnourished.
Hunger is not about a lack of food being grown. It is more political than that, I'm afraid. Plenty of food is being harvested to feed all who are hungry, but so many of the grains that could feed those people are being fed to the livestock to make meat.

Forty percent of the grain grown worldwide is fed to farm animals. In the US, that number is nearly 70 percent.

Every year, the appetite fo rmeat increases and the amount of grains used to feed this appetite goes up.In 1961, people ate 71 million tons of meat. In 2007, humans gobbled up 284 million tons. Not only are there more people, people are eating more meat. We can reverse that trend by encouraging people to eat less meat.

I don't want to say we should stop everyone from eating all meat...let's be realistic, that's not going to happen. But, instead of eating meat at every meal, maybe we can encourage them to eat meat at just one meal a day.

Next year, maybe they will consider eating it only six days a week...and so on.

Every little bit helps.

I still eat eggs and consume cheese. This is a smaller part of the problem. I will try to eat fewer of those things this coming year.

Keep in mind that I'm talking about real hunger...not the sort that nags us after lunch when a Snickers bar will hold you over. I'm talking about chronic hunger, malnutrition, and - yes - death. Forty-five percent of the deaths among children each year occur in countries where poverty and the resulting hunger are most severe.

I'm not trying to be depressing. As a matter of fact, I am encouraging you to help be a part of the solution.

As vegetarians, you are part of the solution to world hunger. You can encourage those who eat meat to eat less of it and to also be a part of the solution. The less meat we consume, the less meat will be made. The less grains that are used to feed farm animals, the more food that will be available to feed hungry people around the world.

Don't be naive. Omnivores are not going to become vegetarians overnight...they like the meat they eat. But, if you can, share this take on solving world hunger with them and see if they will resolve to eat less meat in 2010.

And thank you for doing your part.

I'll try to continue to provide you with more inspiration and recipes so you can continue to help.

Thanks for supporting Vegetarian On A Budget this year. It has been a lot of fun for me.

Happy New Year.