With the huge variety of food available today, most people can’t imagine one day will come when food scarcity will be a problem. But leading water scientists believe the world will have to turn vegetarian by 2050.

Vegetarians today, while ever growing in numbers, are still looked at with scrutiny and confusion. For different reasons they don’t want to eat meat, but for the average Joe meat is a basic ingredient of a delicious meal. According to world’s leading water scientists, by 2050 mankind will have to become vegetarian to avoid food shortages with catastrophic consequences.

By 2050 a lot is set to change. Estimates read that the humankind will have an extra two-billion people to feed and that means water will become a commodity in the food industry. To avoid catastrophic shortages, the humankind will have to get used to getting only 5 percent animal-based proteins as opposed to the current 20 percent.

The reason? There won’t be enough water to produce food for the estimated nine-billion population on Earth in 2050. Or at least there won’t be enough water “if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in Western nations” reads a report by the Stockholm International Water Institute.

“There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to 5 percent of total calories and considerable regional water deficits can be met by a…reliable system of food trade” warn world’s top water scientists.

“More than one-fourth of all the water we use worldwide is taken to grow over one billion tons of food that nobody eats…Reducing the waste of food is the smartest and most direct route to relieve pressure on water and land resources” reads the report.

By mid-century, the food production should be increased by 70 percent to meet the demand, whereas water allocation should also be increased by 60 percent. On top of that there will be 1.3 billion people who will need electricity and water is essential for all these demands. It looks like the upcoming years will have to bring some dramatic changes in the current lifestyle to ensure there’s something for future generations too.

Unless food and water waste is minimized, our children and grandsons will be forced to survive with a vegetarian diet, which is really not all that bad in the end.