Dry
enough for you? No one needs to be reminded that the nation is experiencing the
worst drought in half a century, with nearly two-thirds of the continental U.S.
suffering from drought conditions. The dry, hot weather is fueling wildfires, scorching
lawns and sending food prices soaring--especially for people who eat meat, eggs
and dairy products.
If
you're concerned about your grocery bills--or your health--now would be a good
time to start buying vegan
foods instead of animal-based ones.
Farmed
animals are fed more
than 70 percent of the grains grown in the U.S. It takes 4.5 pounds of
grain to make just 1 pound of chicken meat and 7.3 pounds of grain to produce a
pound of pork. Now that many corn, wheat and soybean crops have been damaged or
destroyed because of the drought, feed prices are soaring. It's so bad that
some meat companies, including Smithfield Foods, have even started importing
corn from Brazil. Guess who's going to foot the bill.
Meat-eaters
can expect to see a spike in prices in the coming months. Consumers who eat
cheese will probably also have to pick up the tab for all the calves who died from
heat stress on Midwestern dairy farms in July.
Shoppers
will likely see higher prices at the chicken counter first, though. The birds
are fed mostly corn, and since chicken farmers engineer them to grow
unnaturally fast, chicken flesh tends to reach the market quicker than beef or
pork.
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that chicken and turkey prices will
rise 3.5 to 4.5 percent and
that egg prices will likely climb by as much as 4 percent. Beef prices are also
expected to rise between 3.5 and 4.5 percent this year and then by 4 or 5
percent in 2013. Pork will cost more in the coming year as well.
It's
cheaper, not to mention healthier
and kinder, to eat grains and soybeans--and all the foods that can be made
from them--directly rather than funneling them through farmed animals to produce
animal products. The amount of feed needed to produce one 8-ounce steak would
fill 45 to 50 bowls with cooked cereal grains. And while shoppers will see a
spike in milk and meat prices, they probably won't see a significant increase
in the cost of corn on the cob, cornflakes or other plant-based foods sold in
supermarkets. The corn that consumers buy at the grocery store is grown
differently from the corn that's used to feed animals and isn't as severely
affected by drought conditions.
Whole
grains, beans, vegetables and other wholesome plant-based foods are even more
of a bargain when you factor in the medical bills that you might rack up if you
eat lots of fatty, cholesterol-laden meats, eggs and dairy products.
Of
course, choosing vegan foods isn't just a good way to save animals or money at
the supermarket. It's also an easy way to help conserve water--you can save more
water by not eating 1 pound of meat than you can by not showering for six
months. Even a collaborative rain dance likely wouldn't make that much of a
difference!
Whether
you're watching your budget, your waistline or just the weather channel, it'll
pay to go
vegan. But if you need some extra exercise, feel free to do a rain dance
anyway.
Heather Moore is a staff writer for the PETA Foundation, 501 Front St., Norfolk,
VA 23510; www.PETA.org.
