In Reply to: Too many errors all around. No one knows for sure. posted by Hawkinson M.D. on December 01, 1996 at 11:09:49:
> > * Cows (of the variety purely bred for slaughter) would indeed
> > become useless, and could not survive on their own in the 'wild',
> > they would be wiped out by other creatures.
> > Solution: we just let them die out naturally and without cruelty
> > by preventing them from reproducing. This wouldn't take long,
> > I mean a cow's lifespan isn't exactly centuries is it ?> 1) Most cattle breeds are breed for meat and dairy. Preventing
> them from breeding and causing them to become extinct sounds
> horrible and definitely inhumane.Er, alright, point conceded. Perhaps McSpotlight's assessment is more realistic.
> > * You seem to be unaware of the fact that energy transfer from plants
> > to humans via beef (cows eat grass, people eat cows) is very inefficient.
> > This means that the amount of land required to feed one person eating
> > a meat-based diet could feed at least SIX people eating a vegetarian diet.
> > So humans would actually have MORE room to live if we all ate vegetables.> 2) YOu err somewhat, but it could turn into semantics. While the USA does
> have obesity, heart, digestive health problems .. these are much more commonly
> caused by abusing high fat snacks (potato & corn chips, nuts, cheese puffs) and
> large consumptions of process sugars (candy, pastries, soda, etc, alcohol (beer
> and wine). tobacco consumption.. etc.... The majority of athletes, laborers,
> medical professionals eat meat wisely and avoid nasty snacks. It is the countries
> where vegetarianism is a majority where we find large numbers of malnutrition cases
> which I volunteer my time to get out vitamin and mineral supplements to prevent
> related illnesses.AAARGH! How can you be so simplistic?! The fact that many people are malnourished
in countries where there is a high level of vegetarianism (India etc.) is completely
uncocnnected! They're malnourished because they're poor, not because they eat
vegetables! If they ate meat they'd probably be poorer, because meat costs so
much due to its high-input, low-output energy transfer.
None.