No more 'chicken jokes' about Punjab.

The National Sample Survey conducts surveys of households in India every few years. According to a survey of 100,000 households, with one month recall, the proportion of non-vegetarians has risen from 56.7% of the population in 1993-94 to 58.2% in 2004-05 to 62.3% in 2011-12. Non-vegetarian is defined as those consuming meat, fish or eggs. The biggest rise has been in the consumption of chicken, which has risen from just 8% in 1993-94 to 38% in 2011-12, while fish consumption has increased marginally from 30% to 32%. Consumption of goat meat/mutton, red meat, has fallen from 30% to 15%, which maybe because of its high price, and also health consciousness among the well off. Consumption of beef/buffalo meat remains constant at 6%. The highest consumption is in the Northeastern states at 97%, followed by West Bengal at 95% and Kerala at 92%. There are some surprises. Notwithstanding the chicken jokes of Punjab, consumption in the state is low at 23%, below that of Gujarat, which is reputed to be vegetarian, at 28%. Haryana is the lowest at 19%. It is no surprise that all the states on the east coast have a high rate of non-vegetarian diet, maybe because of fishing, but the states on the west coast, north of Kerala, have low rates. Strange. As a nation, our meat consumption is almost negligible at 2.9 kg per capita per year, while the US has the highest consumption at 95.43 kg per capita per year. What these figures show that even so-called non-vegetarians eat very little animal products. Our diet is mainly cereals, pulses and vegetables, with some meat or fish added for taste. Is it good? Environmentalists say that eating animal products is bad. Around 300 species of mammals are being driven to extinction because of the practice of eating bushmeat. But we in India do not eat bushmeat. Overfishing is depleting fish stocks in our oceans, at an alarming rate. On the other hand we are the largest milk producer in the world at 146 mmt in 2014-15 but our per capita consumption of milk is low at 322 gm per day. One cow produces about 20 tons of wet manure per year and 100 liters of gas per day, which consist of 400 powerful greenhouse gases, including methane. So should we get rid of all cows and stop all milk products? 15.2% of Indians are undernourished, which results in more illnesses. Malnutrition even affects brains of growing children, who will benefit from more animal products. A cow's intestines are 20 times its length, approximately 150 ft, but our intestines are merely 30 ft in length. So a purely vegetarian diet may not provide all the nutrition we need. Pollution in Delhi is because of burning stubble in Punjab, which is from rice. Finally you can breed chicken in an orchard but you cannot grow wheat without cutting trees. The only solution is to reduce the number of people. Else we are doomed.