From: g9rwaigh@cdf.toronto.edu (Rosemary Waigh)
Subject: Eating killed animals (was Re: Gun Control Petition)
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Disciplines Facility
Distribution: can
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 17:43:55 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.090026.14864@ee.ubc.ca> jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison) writes:
>In article <1992Dec15.010922.17767@cdf.toronto.edu> g9rwaigh@cdf.toronto.edu (Rosemary Waigh) writes:
>>We could eat the grain and soybeans which are fed to livestock.  Surely
>>most people have heard by now the statistics:  n kgs of grain to produce
>>1 kg of meat, where n is significantly greater than 1.
>
>since there are MOUNTAINS of grain and soybeans, more bread than anyone could
>eat, it makes sense to feed it to animals, otherwise it would rot.

Actually there are many people who are dying of starvaton.  If we are going to
grow more grain than we need, it seems to me that it would be better used to
feed those who already exist rather than breeding animals to eat it.

>Do you eat grass? Alfalfa (not sprouts! the REAL plant)? marginal pasture?
>Growing grain on pasture land makes as much sense as  growing crops
>on former rainforest land (after slash'n'burn)

Why cultivate this land at all, if it will just produce a surplus of food?
Think of all the wilderness that is destroyed - 
"For each acre of American forest that is cleared to make room for parking lots,
road, houses, shopping centers, etc., *seven acres* of forest are converted into
land for grazing livestock and/or growing livestock feed."  (_Diet_for_a_new_
_America_ by John Robbins).
>
>>Very very few Canadians are in a position where they must eat meat.
>probably true. Why should they make any sacrifices? They LIKE meat, it's
>not bad for them (in moderation). 

Why should millions of animals make any sacrifices, just because some people
like the taste of their flesh?  And a vegetarian diet need not be a sacrifice.
Brother Ron Pickarski is a vegan chef and three-time Culinary Olympics medal
winner, and the first professional vegetarian chef to be certified executive
chef by the American Culinary Federation.  He has written an excellent cookbook,
_Friendly_Foods_.  Eating this food is not a sacrifice, it is a pleasure!

>People who who don't eat meat for health reasons, may have a case, but
>people who don't eat meat for ethical reasons, ought to to spend some time
>on a farm, 

As a child I often visited my best friend's dad's pig farm.

>or living with hunter gatherers. These people need a reality
>check. 

And the poster who wrote an idyllic fantasy about the lives lead by beef
cattle doesn't?  I think once more people find out what really is going on
on farms and how unnecessary eating meat is, meat consumption will decline
even further.

>Living in cities has detached them from nature, 

This is a common stereotype, that anyone who cares about animals is a city
slicker who knows nothing about them.  However this stereotype is untrue.  I
myself grew up in the woods a few miles out from Almonte, Ontario, population
~4000.  I happen to be living in Toronto right now to attend university, but
I am hardly a city slicker.

>A couple of months living hand to mouth,
>hunting, trapping, fishing, and then skinning, gutting, tanning etc.

I suppose constant exposure to violence from an early age could desensitize
one.  
-- 
Rosemary Waigh             Undergraduate, Computer Science / Linguistics
g9rwaigh@cdf.utoronto.ca   University of Toronto
	"Looking at the Earth from afar you realize it is too small
	for conflict and just big enough for co-operation."  Yuri Gagarin
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