First, approximately 50% of the poultry feed consists of ingredients like rice brokens, wheat brokens, De-oiled Rice barn, Sunflower Oil cake, De- oiled soya, De-oiled groundnut cake, De-oiled rapeseed meal etc., these ingredients are byproducts of grain processing or after oil extraction and is not used for human consumption. However, they have good protien and energy values.

If these byproducts like broken rice or De-oiled rice barn are not used up by some means, then the price of rice would go up. If the byproducts such as Sunflower oil cake & groundnut oil cake are not used then the cost of extraction of oil (sunflower oil, Groundnut oil) will be met by increasing the price of cooking oil. Moreover, these byproducts would have to be dumped in landfills causing pollution to our precious air, water and land resources.

Poultry industry helps subsidise the cost of grains and cooking oils for the entire population by using these ingredients in the production of nutritious eggs and chicken meat.

All these above ingredients are used in production of poultry. One kilogram of poultry feed (constituting of these byproducts) is getting converted to seven to eight nutritious eggs in the table egg industry. Similarly, one kilogram of poultry feed is getting converted to 750 grams of white meat in the broiler (chicken meat) industry. Moreover, the poultry litter is used as a cheap valuble organic manure inplace of expensive chemical fertilizers to grow new crops of grains, fruits and vegetables. Poultry waste is also used along with other ingredients as a substrate for growing mushrooms.

If you consider country chicken, an average hen produces about 50 – 60 eggs a year consuming about 50 Kgs of locally available ingredients. In the organised sector, a hen typically produces 280 – 300 eggs on average by consuming about 40 – 42 Kgs of feed in a year. It is evedient that from a productivity point of view also, poultry industry provides the maximum output utilizing minimal resources.

Thus, poultry industry as a whole operates in a sustainable manner and is a forerunner in the cause of global warming.

Next we know, we’ll be fined for eating non-veg on Thurs or we might starve if we want to eat a non-veg lunch because no restaurant in America will serve meat that day!

One meal a week is reasonable but no dictats pl that it should be this day or that meal.

Let everyone eat a vegetarian meal just because they BELIEVE!

See, am almost always a veggie because I have high cholesterol. Am sure there must be millions of people like me out there who are veggie OUT OF CHOICE – animal lovers, health conscious, and so on.

And let one more group join the cause of vegetarianism – environmentalists and the ‘greens’. Welcome to the club, I say!

Lower carbon footprint, kindnes to animalskindness to self due to weight loss, carb / cholesterol reduction, preventing pollution, ah, see that halo around my head

Actually, think about it, becoming veggies isnt such a bad thing after all. Have always being toying with that idea and now that I have such a great goal in front of me, switching to a vegiie meal once a week is a GREAT idea.

We have 7*3 = 21 meals a week. Of those, 02 can be non-veg and 1 can be veg.

I’d like to propose Thursdays lunch as vegetarian. If Americans all have a veggie lunch on Thursday, then that will be our first step to prevent global warming.

What say, guys?