- Michael Klaper, M.D. shared his knowledge with students regularly
- 12 pounds of grains is equivalent to 54 bowls of cornflakes or 12 loaves of bread
- 12 pounds of grains is equivalent to 1 pound of minced beef (if you feed the cows with the grains and get the meat from the cows)
- every cow consumes on average more than 30 kg (66 pounds or 5.5 loaves of bread) of grains and greens daily
- farming of grains needs 1/6 acre of land, which is equivalent to 2 acres of land (12 times more) needed if the grains are used for feeding / rearing the cows
- Studies showed that Singaporeans consume more than 20 000 metric tonnes of beef a year (emission of methane from farming is more than CO2 emisson).
- the most expensive beef in the world is the Japanese wagyu beef which has made Japanese cuisine world-famous
- in luxury restaurants beef from Kagoshima could fetch as much as S$100 per 100g (if only 1% of serving is donated to charity/ needy or ppl in the developing world countries)
- in hawker centres a slab of beef cost S$6 (equivalent amount of beef in restaurants cost $74 = 12.3333 times more expensive)
- very soon, prices will increase further with the GST hike to 10% + inflation (on ave 40% of mthly expenditure is spent on groceries/marketing and food)
- From Jan - Sep last year alone, Singapore imports more than 8800 kg of frozen Kagoshima beef (= wt of a large dumper truck)
- Japanese wagyu beef has such fine texture, some being graded A5, some B3, a total of 15 grades in all
According to ST newspaper dated 17 Oct 2009 "The Face of Hungry" page C20:
- 1 in 6 ppl in the world goes hungry (spiralling food prices have added to hardships where the poor can barely afford a single meal a day in the world's most desperate countries)
- 1.02 billion ppl across the world are hungry (the no. will increase if governments do not spend on agriculture)
- estimated 3.5 million ppl die annually from malnutrition
- with the lack of access to nutrients, starving ppl are more vulnerable to diseases and death
- on ave, 1 person dies every second as a result of starvation
- more than 60% of chronically hungry people are women
- lack of Vitamin A kills 1 million infants a year
- 1 billion ppl live on less than US$1 a day
Another ST article said:
- 1 child dies every 6 sec of malnutrition; 1 in 5 children in Somalia is acutely malnourished, a trend seen in impoverished countries across Africa
- UN Food and Agriculture Organistion (FAO) revealed that 30 countries now require emergency aid, including 20 in Africa (World Food Day 2009 report)
Another ST article dated 14 Sep 2009 "Asean must step up and act without delay" page A24:
- Indonesia will likely lose 2000 small islands by 2030
- by 2015, 55% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are likely to come from Asian cities, making SEA one of the main contributors to global carbon emissons
- carbon cuts not enough to save ozone layer (a tonne of CO2 = running 1 drinks vending machine for 9 mth or running 39 PC monitors for 1yr during working hrs)
- CO2 is the principal global warming gas produced by human activity (the others being methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride)
Another ST article dated 1 Dec 2009 "Eat less meat for the green cause" page A23:
- Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, is passionate about climate change
- did his bit for the environment by eschewing meat and using the air-con sparingly
- US, who is responsible for 20% of the carbon emission, has a population of 300 million only
- US President Mr. Obama said very clearly that the US will lead in this area
Another ST article dated 3 Dec 2009 "S'pore to pledge 16% cut in gas emissions" page A2:
- SM S Jayakumar said that the city-state will undertake steps to reduce its emission growth to 16% below "business as usual" levels by 2020
- without a global agreement by all to address climate change, our efforts alone will be meaningless
- requires everyone to make conscious decisions, to change behaviour, to have different choices, to cut down on wastage both at home and at workplace
- not surprising that some environmentalists are urging people to go green to save the world
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