On 11/28/05, Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Not all vegetarians avoid meat because of animal rights issues. > > Why do they avoid it then? > > Best > > Keith
Are you itchin' for a fight? ;^) Well, I trust that based on our long discussion a few months ago, that you know why I avoided meat for so many years. But, I'll bite anyway...there are those that feel that the land used to grow feed for livestock could be better used to grow feed for humans. There are also those that believe that there is an excessive burden placed on the environment by the poor "farming" practices followed by the large corporate farms that provide most of the animal-based food products in some portions of the world. Keith, before this turns into a heated debate, lets both agree that we both understand that properly grazing animals helps to amend soil without harming watersheds. Which really does answer both of the reasons mentioned above for avoiding meat. I had avoided meats and dairies for many, many years because of environmental damage done be agro-business. Prior to the "Pimentel is at it again" thread back in July, I followed an almost vegan diet. In the course of that discussion and over the next 6 weeks or so, I did some serious searching and found many local farmers that are raising organic, grassfed meats and organic pastured poultry. My wife and I had switched to these local farms over the grocery store for the meats that our kids wished to eat. After some additional "food-mile" considerations, I have begun eating locally grown, organic, grassfed meats and dairy to augment the locally grown, organic vegetables that I was always able to find seasonally. With the exception of rice and the occasional exotic treat, we have reduced our food shed to a six mile radius. Once I find a source of local barley, we'll kick the rice habit also. But, not everyone is so lucky as I am to have these resources available. If I didn't have these farms close by, I would be happy to return to a diet of based solely on locally grown plant foods. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
