Letter to BS: Switching to vegan diet has become urgent need of the hour

Apropos "Food security to be severely hit because of climate change"(August 9). Year after year, the United Nations has been advising that a sustainable future lay in avoiding industrial meat and consciously switching to vegan diets. Although the average annual per capita meat consumption in India isn’t as alarming as in America, switching to vegetarian/vegan diet has become the urgent need of the hour, given the ecological destruction and untold animal suffering that meat industries are causing. Let us not forget the claustrophobic rearing conditions, artificial diets (leading to methane emissions from animal farms), antibiotics abuse and above all, the inhumane slaughtering methods -- which make the livestock farming sector worse than the transport sector in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. 

With options like vegan meat (pea/soy-based) that companies are coming up with in India and the soon-to-be-introduced lab-made “cultured meat” (derived from animal muscle tissue), it should no longer be difficult for meat-eaters to make the enlightened transition.

Krishna Manoj, via email

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