Interesting editorial from Jim Motavalli for Foreign Policy magazine predicting that as early as 2025 the Earth will no longer support meat-based diets and, as a result, the world population will be foreced to subsist on a plant-based diet.
Jim cites the highly-publicized UN Food and Agricultural Organization report that says a whopping 33 percent of the world's arable land is currently set aside to grow crops for animal feed. The combination of deforastration and the depletion of fresh water (and an ever-growing world population) will result in the collapse of the food system as we know it. Jim also feels that ethical concerns around killing and eating animals will take on greater significance and cause people en masse to give up meat for good.
I tend to be more fatalistic and worry that we'll destroy the planet completely before we change our meat-eating ways, but this piece suggests we'll finally see the error of our ways before the planet is totally ruined. I hope I'm wrong!
What do you think? Do you believe Earth can continue to support meat-based diets for first world populations and, increasingly, developing countries such as China and India?
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