Garth & Kim Travis wrote: >Greetings, >I too kill my own animals, we put their names on the package of meat and >remember them when we eat them, giving thanks for their life >energies. Even the Dali Lama is only vegetarian half the time, as the >stress of traveling weakens him too much on a strict vegetarian diet. Many >of us get sick not eating meat. Now, I am not saying that I need a 16 >ounce steak for dinner every night, and I do not eat factory farmed meat, >cause that will make me sick, too. For some of us, we see the spiritual >connection between the animal and ourselves, when we eat it, and treat the >whole thing in a spiritual manner. > >I talk to my animals and thank them for their life energies before I kill >them. I wish them a longer and happier life in their next incarnation, and >they stay very calm, stand still and let me kill them. > >Chickens are the easiest animal to kill, rabbits the hardest, for me. > >Bright Blessings, >Kim > > Hi Kim,
I don't think you are being quite fair in citing the example of the Dalai Lama as an example of vegetarianism "not working". "In the mid 1960s the Dalai Lama was in Kerala, Southern India, where a high proportion of the local population have always been vegetarian. Their tradition, as with other parts of India, is of lacto-vegetarianism, using a modest amount of milk products (but not eggs). Whilst there the Dalai Lama decided to become vegetarian but then proceeded to live on a bizarre diet consisting entirely of milk and nuts. If this is true, and it seems to be well documented, it would have been an extremely high fat and very unhealthy diet by any standards. After 18 months he became very ill and his doctors, unsurprisingly, blamed it on the lack of meat rather than advising a better balanced vegetarian diet. He was persuaded to return to meat-eating and has done so ever since." (International Vegetarian Union) If somebody does something irresponsible like that it is unfair to blame it on vegetarianism. It's like saying making biodiesel is extremely injurious to your health because some nut job blows himself up heating methanol in an open barrel with a blow torch! I have been vegetarian for the last six years and my wife for the last ten. We are both thankfully very healthy. Do I attribute this solely to vegetarianism? No. We both lead a pretty healthy lifestyle and no longer smoke. I don't claim that eating modest amounts of meat will kill you as some overly enthusiastic vegetarians do. Neither do I accept that eating a sensible vegetarian diet is unhealthy. I belong to a Food Co-op of about 1200 members of whom about one third are vegetarian. In a large close knit group like that one would hear if there were problems with a vegetarian diet. Problems can arise when people take up vegetarianism but don't do their homework properly. You have to learn about the various foods and make sure that you are getting all the proper vitamins. I was in the army until recently and got a very strict medical every year which include blood tests of every description checking for vitamin deficiencies. This is very important especially for teenagers. There is also a fair bit of confusion about what a vegetarian is. It can mean different things to different people. The dictionary definition is someone who will not eat food which had resulted in the death of an animal. People sometimes confuse it with veganism which is a much more exclusive diet as it does not allow any food derived from animals. This diet needs an awful lot more care especially with regard to vitamin B12. Many very extensive studies have been done on various vegetarian groups such as Seven Day Adventists and some vegetarians claim that as these people are healthier than average that it must be due to their vegetarian diet. I don't subscribe to this view because these people don't smoke or drink either. What I do conclude from this however is that a vegetarian diet doesn't do these people any harm. This is the important point to realise. It may be the case that some people cannot tolerate a vegetarian diet. I don't know. My point is that IF we can tolerate this diet that we should because it is unethical to kill sentient creatures for no good reason. ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS. Just because they are dumb doesn't mean we can deprive them of a happy existance because they happen to taste nice. Regards Dermot Donnelly _______________________________________________ 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/
