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From: jlg@lanl-a.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Re: Question (and an Answer)
Message-ID: <406@lanl-a.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Jan-84 14:58:58 EST
Article-I.D.: lanl-a.406
Posted: Fri Jan  6 14:58:58 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Jan-84 00:47:12 EST
References: <1601@utcsstat.UUCP>, <3016@utcsrgv.UUCP> <300@lanl-a.UUCP>, <586@linus.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 18


I live in cattle growing country and I have NEVER seen a cow eat anything that
I could metabolize.  This includes grass, sagebrush, several types of (what 
most people would call) weeds.  Furthermore, the land that supports these 
cattle could not support any form of agriculture without large amounts of
irrigation.  I'm sure that these cattle are feed other foods to fatten them
up before marketing, but this is a brief phase of their lives and is done in
feed lots.  Feeding grain to cattle would not be done at all if it was not
economically feasible.  

Feeding the starving people on this planet is an economic problem and (not yet)
a physical one.  When it becomes physically impossible for people to live on
a complete omnivorous diet, the planet will be too crowded to live on anyway.
I think it would be a terrible shame to turn the grazing land of this country
over to agriculture.  The grasslands and forests (yes, cattle do graze in
forrested land) deserve better than to be leveled (for irrigation efficiency)
and layed out in dull rows of cabbage.