In fact I don't think enough is being said about the connection between meat production and our planet's destruction and Third World hunger. With three times as many farm animals in the world as people they are competing with us for land and water and causing major environmental damage. On an area of land big enough to feed two people raising cattle, you could feed 60 people growing soya. And the water needed for one day's food for a meat-eater is 15,000 litres, while for a vegetarian it is 5,000 litres and for a vegan 1,150 litres. Grazing is often said to be the only use for some land but in many cases a more efficient and sustainable use would be to grow trees for timber, fuel and food.
Trees also check soil erosion, maintain the water table and help prevent both flood and drought.
The reference to my affiliation and research on Mad Cow Disease amounts only to a personal attack which ignores the evidence. Scott C Ratzan Washington DC , US Building bridges I'd like to thank the NI readers who helped raise the voice of sanity in Britain during the bombing of Yugoslavia and to let you know about a new organization, Building Bridges to the People of Yugoslavia . We will be campaigning for humanitarian aid for all the people of Yugoslavia and for Western governments to provide funds to assist with cleaning up the poisoned environment and the reconstruction of the civilian infrastructure of the whole country. Far from preventing a humanitarian catastrophe, NATO bombardment created one. As the United Nations Inter-Agency Needs Assessment Mission recently reported, the air raids 'created a new type of complex humanitarian emergency'.