Towards Plant-Based Diet in Nigeria: Hindsight From Western Meat Production and Consumption

Introduction

The growing significance of plant-based diet around the world is becoming apparent in the light of food insecurity, health problems and environmental concerns (Gold & Porritt, 2004; Henning, 2011; Nordgren, 2012; Raphaely & Marinova, 2016). Many authors have argued the resource use benefits of plant-based relative to diets based on animal products (Henning, 2011; Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003; Raphaely & Marinova, 2014a; Yacoubou, 2009). To obtain the needed animal products such as meat, dairy and eggs, animals have to be reared and intensively fed. The unjustifiable land-use, water-use, and grain consumption in the animal agriculture sector pose a threat to the continual existence of humans on earth (Singer & Mason, 2006; Raphaely & Marinova, 2014a). The environmental impacts of industrialised animal farming are also undeniable (Macrae, 2010; Pelletier & Tyedmers, 2010). Driven by the increasing human population and its excessive appetites for meat consumption, the growth of the animal agriculture sector has been accelerated to an unsustainable level for the planet (Raphaely & Marinova, 2014a). Human dietary choices, therefore, transcend individual interests. They concern human health (both public and personal), ecological health, the economy and even animal welfare. As emphasised by Raphaely and Marinova (2014a), individual choice of food has a cumulative impact on earth’s sustainability.

Currently, the inordinate appetite of the western world for meat consumption has resulted in health problems such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and antibiotics resistance (Abioye-Kuteyi et al., 2004; Azevedo & Alla, 2008; Chan et al., 2011; Ferrucci et al., 2010); increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) resulting in climate change (Goodland & Anhang, 2009; Raphaely & Marinova, 2014b; Stehfest et al., 2009; Steinfeld et al., 2006a); and a misappropriate use of land for animal agriculture (Lubowski et al., 2006; Thornton et al., 2011). The complications resulting from animal agriculture are expansive, for example, animal agriculture can be linked to the starvation experienced by about 1 billion hungry people in the world (FAO, 2015). The current grains production in the world is more than sufficient to feed about 9 billion population, however, these grains (which should have been consumed by humans) are been fed to animals which subsequently produce meat with a poor grain to meat ratio (Foer, 2009; Godfray et al., 2010; Henning, 2011; Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003; Yotopoulos, 1985). Beyond the unjustified grains to meat conversion ratio, meat production and consumption have also resulted in global inequality, as most of the meat produced from grains sourced across the globe is consumed by the western world (Raphaely & Marinova, 2014a). About 80% of the over I billion hungry population are distributed across developing nations (FAO, 2015; Andersen & Kuhn, 2014). Contrastingly, these developing nations, in most cases, grow sufficient grains to feed their human population but the grains are feed to livestock animals locally or through exportation (Godfray et al., 2010; Guyomard et al., 2013).