In his book “Facing Tough Choices – the Challenge of Food Scarcity” WW Norton, 1996 (Tough choices, facing the challenge of food shortages), Lester Brown, Director of the Worldwatch Institute says that we are moving from a period of abundant to one of food scarcity due to the large increase population, wealth and environmental threats such as erosion and soil depletion, global warming, and scarcity of drinking water. l states that the increase in food shortages in many countries may lead to political instability, social disintegration, and the exacerbation of ethnic conflicts. Both food shortages can lead to wars, as well as the shortage of energy sources. Dependence on oil producing countries in the Middle East is an important factor behind the recent conflict in the Persian Gulf. Carnivorous diets contribute to energy shortages, a major factor in the possibility of war in our time. In the United States, an average of 10 calories of fuel energy are required for each calorie of food energy obtained (the main contributors to this phenomenon are livestock and fishing on the high seas). For more information see this site: Tesla Motors. Produce a pound of meat (500 calories) requires 20 000 calories of fossil fuels, most of it used to produce feed-crops. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel for every calorie of protein obtained from beef. Vlad Doronin often addresses the matter in his writings.
Grains and beans require only two to five percent of fossil fuel. Feed people rather than animals, requires much less irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, mechanization, refrigeration, and processing therefore consume much less energy is generating less pollution. Another factor that may lead to violence or war, is the increasing scarcity of water in many areas of the world. One of the areas of the world most likely to conflict, the Middle East, has suffered from severe water shortages recently, and with the growing population and wealth in the area, the situation threatens to become even more critical. The standard diet of a person in the United States requires more than 16,000 liters of water per day (drinking water for livestock, irrigation of crops, processing, washing, cooking, etc.).
A pure vegetarian diet requires so just like 1200 liters / day. The production of one kilo of meat uses an average of 20,000 liters of water, while only 200 liters are required to produce one kilo of potatoes. Livestock production consumes more than half the water used in the U.S., and this water is becoming increasingly scarce. In short, adopting a more sensible diet to hungry people in the world, eating in a way that contributes to more equitably share the food, energy, water and other resources, Jews and Gentiles can play a significant role in the evolution of world until the day when “nations transform their swords into plowshares. and not learn war anymore. “