MUMBAI: The founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA India), Ingrid Newkirk, took a public shower near the Horniman Circle in south Mumbai on Thursday to highlight how the vast meat industry, by raising animal farms, is leading to severe droughts.
Her shower curtain read, “One Chicken Meal = 30 Showers. Go Vegan to End World Drought!”
The demonstration was to drive home the message that to save water and stop contributing to the climate catastrophe, is to go vegan.
“Modern meat and dairy production require up to 50 times more water than the production of plant foods like pulses, vegetables, and grains,” said Newkirk. “As India suffers from drought, PETA India is asking people worldwide to preserve precious resources by rejecting chicken and curd in favour of tasty vegan foods that can save water and animals’ lives and even benefit their own health,” she stressed.
According to the Water Footprint Network, it takes 322 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of vegetables. In contrast, 1 kilogram of milk requires 1,020 litres, 1 kilogram of eggs 3,265 litres, 1 kilogram of poultry meat 4,325 litres, 1 kilogram of pork 5,988 litres, and 1 kilogram of mutton 8,763 litres, while 1 kilogram of beef requires a staggering 15,415 litres of water to produce.
“Factory farming, introduced by the West, is now used all over India, with devastating results. Rainforests are being cut down to grow animal fodder, and according to some estimates, modern animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation systems combined. And while 189 million people go hungry in India and fewer than half the country’s residents have access to safe drinking water, the production of animal-derived foods uses a third of the world’s freshwater resources and a third of the world’s cropland,” stated PETA India’s media release. This cropland could be used to grow food for hungry humans instead of animals deliberately bred and raised to be used and killed, it added.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist world view.
Her shower curtain read, “One Chicken Meal = 30 Showers. Go Vegan to End World Drought!”
The demonstration was to drive home the message that to save water and stop contributing to the climate catastrophe, is to go vegan.
“Modern meat and dairy production require up to 50 times more water than the production of plant foods like pulses, vegetables, and grains,” said Newkirk. “As India suffers from drought, PETA India is asking people worldwide to preserve precious resources by rejecting chicken and curd in favour of tasty vegan foods that can save water and animals’ lives and even benefit their own health,” she stressed.
According to the Water Footprint Network, it takes 322 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of vegetables. In contrast, 1 kilogram of milk requires 1,020 litres, 1 kilogram of eggs 3,265 litres, 1 kilogram of poultry meat 4,325 litres, 1 kilogram of pork 5,988 litres, and 1 kilogram of mutton 8,763 litres, while 1 kilogram of beef requires a staggering 15,415 litres of water to produce.
“Factory farming, introduced by the West, is now used all over India, with devastating results. Rainforests are being cut down to grow animal fodder, and according to some estimates, modern animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation systems combined. And while 189 million people go hungry in India and fewer than half the country’s residents have access to safe drinking water, the production of animal-derived foods uses a third of the world’s freshwater resources and a third of the world’s cropland,” stated PETA India’s media release. This cropland could be used to grow food for hungry humans instead of animals deliberately bred and raised to be used and killed, it added.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist world view.
