Hong Kong is home to many types of ethnic cuisines from Shandong pork dumplings to Indian roti curry nan. This city also promotes healthy vegetarian diets. The Hong Kong Vegan Society provides in a list of vegetarian restaurants for Hong Kong citizens to try. The University of Hong Kong participates the citywide event called “Hong Kong Meat-Free Monday” by providing vegetarian options in campus cafeterias.
Hong Kong Vegan Groups advocate vegetarian diet to not only promote better cardiovascular health but also reduce 87% of greenhouse gas emissions involved in the feeding of animals, slaughtering and transporting of livestock to meat markets. In other words, more energy can be derived from plant-based than animal-based diet. Let’s consider the derived energy to invested ratio of animals. Animals like humans consume plants for energy. Humans only derive 10% of the energy from animals, which is a fraction of that energy consumed to raise the livestock. Why not bypass this step and feed directly the plants to humans?
This phenomenon is known as the Food Web Pyramid. There are three trophic levels that contribute to the flow of energy that ultimately ends with humans. The first biomass are the plant producers. They converts sunlight or chemicals into energy by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis, respectively. Ten percent of its energy is transferred to the next trophic level, leaving 90% of the energy to waste. Another 10% of that 10% is supplied to the secondary consumers humans.
