debate

The meat debate

Dear Sir,

I read Mr Brandit’s letter to the editor: “Meat and violence” (Pacific Islands Monthly November, 1996).

I agree with Mr Brandit 100 per cent, and would like to add a few more facts.

Beef and poultry producers are among the

most Environmentally unfriendly indus

tries on the planet. To get one pound of beef, we have to feed 16 pounds of grain to the cow! This ties up acre after acre of land just to grow animal feed.

Even range-grazed cattle end up in feed lots, consuming vast quantities of feed crops.

If we were to stop animal agriculturel, fully 200 million acres couldbe reforested.

One-fourth of all soil erosion is caused by growing com, nearly all of which becomes animal feed. Irrigation of animal feed crops takes an enormous amount of water.

Runoffs from feed lots are a major pol lutant of our rivers. Vegetarians have a lot lower incidence of heart disease and can cer and live years longer than meat eaters.

So, have a spaghetti dinner with toma to sauce instead of meat sauce; have oat meal and toast for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs. Pick up a vegetarian cookbook.

The earth and your coronary arteries will thank you.

And last but not least: if red-meat eaters could see and hear what goes on in slaughter houses and the brutality and cru elty animals have to endure in the process of being killed, most meat eaters wpuld turn vegetarian on the spot.

Inge Mathiesen

Montana United States