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From: luigi@hplabsc.UUCP (Luigi Semenzato)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Re: Question (and an Answer)
Message-ID: <1583@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Jan-84 17:08:40 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.1583
Posted: Tue Jan  3 17:08:40 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Jan-84 01:28:26 EST
References: <1601@utcsstat.UUCP> <3016@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 23

I have always wondered if a totally vegetarian diet is completely
healthy. I agree it's probably better than a very meaty and fatty
diet, but aren't there some proteins (or other types of compunds)
that only meat can supply? Since homo sapiens has been eating meat
for quite a long time, it would seem more natural to keep a little
of it in our diets.

From a religious point of view, I must agree: it's not nice to kill
any kind of animal. However, I also dislike any form of unnecessary
violence to vegetables. They are fine forms of life. Moreover, they
are totally incapable of defending themselves against the attacks of
homo sapiens or other animals. The latters, at least in some
circumstances, can attempt to run away.

It's true that meat is very expensive from an agricultural/energetic
viewpoint. However, we are at a point in which plants are already too
expensive. Expansion of agricultural land destroys forests, brings
animal species to extinction, and creates lots of other problems.
The only long-term solution is worldwide birth control. If we don't
practice it, the natural one will be a lot more painful (and it already
is, in several countries).

Luigi Semenzato