Are you surprised by the Lentils and Goat
combination? For the people in US and other developed countries, both are
almost alien food items, not used frequently. For Indians, both are much
familiar as India holds the 2nd position worldwide in the production of both
and the lentils is the staple food. Canada is the largest producer of the
lentils and China for the goats.
Lentils and goats are 2 essential components
of the 'disruptive eating' which we practice and promote through Nirmal. Please
read our earlier posts. The 'disruptive eating' connects the healthy eating to
the climate change. Both are the most glaring issues of our generation.
The healthy eating component has 2 parts -
one, you don't have to eat meat for protein and second, for non-vegetarians,
the goat meat is far better option. Just to give an idea, the meat consumption
alone produces more greenhouse gases than that of all aeroplanes, trains,
automobiles combined, 21% of the total. The lentils combined with the rice or
any whole grain is the complete protein. In bonus, the lentils is the excellent
source of the dietary fiber. See the link - http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/foods-mixed-lentils-provide-complete-source-amino-acids-1195.html
Also
the veggie protein has one component missing as compared to the meat protein
-B12. One can get plenty of B12 in the dairy and the eggs. The vegans need to
get the supplement from the other sources.
We believe that the whole world population
can't turn the vegetarians overnight, not feasible either as per the food chain
point of view or the employment wise. Almost 1 Billion people are engaged in
the meat production, transportation and the distribution. Out of 7 Billion of
the world population, now there are just 750 million vegetarians, 500 million
in India. Percentage wise, India has 42% vegetarians as compared to 10% in the
US and 5% in the China. Such high percentage of vegetarians in India could be
attributed to our cultural moorings as well as the Curry based food. The Curry
uses the plenty of the spices whose taste is so dominant that it makes the
presence of veggie or the meat item almost redundant. Like if you eat soya
curry or chciken curry, your taste buds would get almost the same pleasure. The
India was well known for its spices since the time immemorial and still is the
largest producer of the spices in the world. That's why the Indian cuisine is
the integral part of the 'disruptive eating.'
The goat meat despite being the red meat is
healthier than even Chicken. See the link from the Michigan State University,
one of the top agriculture research universities in the US - http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/eat_goat_it_is_a_healthy_choice
But that is not the biggest advantage of the
goat meat. Once you go through this link -
"http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-gallons-of-water-to-make-a-burger-20140124-story.html#"-story.html#
, you may get shocked. One pound (454 gms) of the beef uses 1800 gallon of water
(1 gallon=3.78 liters). Compare this with the pork needing 576 gallon, Chicken
468, Lamb 731 and the stupendous Goat needs just 127 gallons. I know the beef
supporters always forward the argument that for the grain fed beef, the water
requirement comes down by 75%, so 1 pound beef would need 450 gallons, still
3.5 times of the goat. One reason to combine Lentils with Goat is its water
requirement, less than 100 gallons for a pound. Actually the scientists have
developed the drought resistant varieties of the lentils.
Let me share some more facts. How many of us
know that 70% of the agriculture land in the world is used for some form of
feed for the meat producing animals, the pastures or the grain. See the link -http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/meat-and-animal-feed.html . Here the goat scores too as they are
called the browsers not the grazers. As matter of the fact, for the same
quantity of the meat, the goat eats 1/3 of the grass needed for the beef and
1/5 of the grain needed for the pork. Also the goat could be reared anywhere
from the Himalayas to the Sub-Saharan Africa. In India, the villagers keep the
goats as the pets due to its small size. Goat is also good source of the milk
and its milk is more tolerant or digestive than the cow's milk.
As of now, the global meat consumption has
share of the Pork 38%, the Chicken 30% and the Beef 24%, Goat 6%, total 98%.
All other meats fit into 2% including the lamb, the turkey and other meats. And
that baffles me. Like if you try our goat curry or goat biryani in Indian
Cuisine, it beats hand down any preparation of beef or pork. Off course you
need to get used to the spices.
So the goat meat is healthier, far more
sustainable than any type of meat, could be tastier in due course, then why its
usage is at the bottom of the rung.
We believe that the lack of information is
the primary reason. That's why we have started a campaign to ask the UN to
declare the #WorldsLentilsDay and #WorldGoatDay on Oct 16, the World Food Day.
Let people all over the world focus on the lentils and the goat. We are
also pitching for the UN supervised program for #LentilsLand and #GoatLoan. There is
so much barren land or the unused government or private land in each and every
country. Can UN help in leasing these lands to the landless poor people and
help them grow the lentils, called the poor's protein? Also the UN can arrange
the goat loan to these or other poor families to build an extra source of
income in the form of goat rearing.
The UN sponsored International Days are very
effective. Just last month the International Yoga day was celebrated on 21st
June. It was observed by 190 countries out of 205 countries or so. I was
following the #BeefBan issue in India. Everyone pitched in from the central
ministers to the leaders from the other parties to the twitter world. I did not
hear a single word from anyone about how the beef is not healthy neither
sustainable. I know people would argue that the beef is far cheaper than the
goat. It is because there is not very high demand for the goat, a red meat
though healthier than Chicken and most of the goat meat produced in India is
exported. Once the people start eating the goat meat, the supply would go up
too. And with the goat loan, the Indian villages with 51% of population would
become the goat farm land and that would bring the price down. In India, there
is no need for the beef ban once the people know about the goat.
I am banking on Indian Prime minister Modi Ji
to take the cause of the lentils and the goat this year at UN General Assembly
like he did for the Yoga last year. I know he is a vegetarian and frequently
talks about the lentils production in India. But both things have potential to
change the Indian economy. And India needs it more.
Say after the sustained effort of UN and the
countries like US, India, China, say by 2050, the goat meat share reaches 50%,
Chicken 40%, other meats 10% and 25% of the world population turn the vegetarian,
imagine the savings in the grain and the pasture land. This has potential to
eradicate the global hunger and the poverty problem.
Why 2050? By then the world population would
be 9 billion. Whatever progress we make in the space technology, we won't be
able to send more than 10K people to the Mars or the Moon by 2050. So we have
to fit in another 2 billion people on our planet and provide food for them.
From where? We have to take back the
land from the meat animals, remember 70% of the agriculture land. And only way
out is to reduce the meat consumption in general and gradually the goat to
replace the beef and pork as the global brand. The forest cover depletion is no
longer the option for the human habitat.
And yes, the water is not unlimited what we
drink and use for bath, cooking etc. If you think the sea water which covers
almost 70% of our planet is an option, forget it. We need to think before we
eat anything. Sorry, the Chocolate too.
Recently we launched the campaign for
#PureMHealthyM here in the Michigan. Let us take our message to all over the US
and beyond. We bank on your participation.
References
http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/meat-and-animal-feed.html
"http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2009/04/the_kindest_cut.html"/the_kindest_cut.html
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/goat-meat-the-final-frontier/2011/03/28/AF0p2OjC_story.html"OjC_story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment