Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site uwai.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!caip!topaz!uwvax!uwai!honavar From: honavar@uwai.UUCP (Vasant Honavar) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: Vegetarians Message-ID: <328@uwai.UUCP> Date: Sat, 28-Dec-85 05:04:22 EST Article-I.D.: uwai.328 Posted: Sat Dec 28 05:04:22 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 23:34:09 EST References: <75900002@hpfclg.UUCP <325@uwai.UUCP <326@uwai.UUCP Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Lines: 97 Some more sound reasons for being vegetarian: 1. Solving the world hunger problem According to the well known food expert and best-selling author Francis Moore Lappe, a piece of steak is like a cadillac. She explains, "In America we are hooked on gas guzzling automobiles because of the illusion of cheap petroleum. Likewise, we got hooked on a grain-fed, meat-centered diet because of the illusion of cheap grain." According to statistics compiled by the U.S Dept. of Agriculture, over 90 percent of all the grain produced in America is used for feeding livestock that wind up on dinner tables. Yet, the process of using grain for meat production is terribly wasteful. Information from USDA's economic research service shows that we get 1 pound of beef for 16 pounds of grain. Dr. Aaron Ashtul has pointed out in his book "Proteins : Their chemistry and politics" that in terms of calories per unit acre, a diet of grains, vegetables, fruits and beans (a good source of proteins) will support 20 times more people than a diet of meat. In a report submitted to the United Nations World food conference (1974), Rene Dumont, an agricultural economist from France's National agricultural institute concluded that "The over consumption of meat by few means hunger for many. This wasteful agriculture must be changed to solve the hunger problem". These plain economic facts were known to the Greeks. Socrates recommended a vegetarian diet because it would allow a country to make the most intelligent use of its agricultural resources. He had warned that if people continued eating animals, there would be need for more pasture lands to gain which the country may have to go to war. Back in August 1974, the C.I.A published a report warning that there may not be enough food for the world population in the near future unless the affluent nations made a quick and drastic cut in their consumption of grain-fed animals. You can draw your own conclusions. 2. Ethical considerations Leonardo Da Vinci, the great genius of the renaissance era, epitomised the ethical reasons for being vegetarian. He wrote "He who does not value life does not preserve it". He called the bodies of meat eaters, burial grounds for the animals they ate. In "The wealth of nations", Adam Smith wrote "It may indeed be doubted whether meat is anywhere a necessity of life". Benjamin Franklin, who became a vegetarian at the age of sixteen, in his autobiography, called meat eating unprovoked murder. Shelly, the famous English poet, in his poem "Queen Mab", described a Utopian world where men do not kill animals for food -- ........ no longer now he slays the lamb that looks him in the face, and horribly devours his mangled flesh, which, still avenging nature's broken law, kindled all putrid humors in his frame, all evil passions, all vain belief, hatred, despair and loathing in his mind, the germs of misery, death and crime. Leo Tolstoy felt that there was a natural progression of violence that led inevitably to war in human society. In his essay "The first step", Tolstoy wrote that meat eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling, namely killing without reasonable cause. Gandhi, the twentieth century apostle of non-violence, felt that ethical principles are a stronger support for a lifelong commitment to a vegetarian diet than reasons of health. On the connection between meet eating and violence in human society, Bernard Shaw wrote, in his characteristic way, we pray on sundays that we may have the light, to guide our footsteps in the path we tread, we are sick of war, we don't want to fight, and yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead. 3. Health Because the alimentary canal of humans is about 3 times as long as that of typical carnivores, meat, which decays very fast, is retained in the stomach for a much longer time, producing undesirable toxic effects. The organ that is worst hit by this is the kidney which has to extract these toxins from the blood. Since the human body is very limited in its ability to deal with excess animal fat, fatty deposits accumulate on the inner walls of the arteries producing arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries. Since this constricts the flow of blood to the heart, the potential of heart attacks and strokes is significantly increased. Nitrosamines, labeled by the Food and drug Administration as the most formidable and versatile group of carcinogens yet discovered, are formed when secondary amines found in beer, wine etc. react with preservatives used in meat. In an experiment conducted at the Oakridge national laboratory by Dr. William Lijinsky, 100 percent of the animals fed with nitrosamines got malignant tumors within six months. Now to the most often asked question - Where do you get your proteins if you are vegetarian ? Of the 22 amino acids required by the body, all but 8 can be synthesized within the human body. The rest can be gotten in adequate quantities from beans, nuts and dairy products. A study by Dr. Fred Stare of Harward university and Dr. Mervin Hardinge of Loma Linda University made comparison between the protein intake of vegetarians and meat eaters and found that both groups exceeded the amino acid intake over that required by a factor of atleast two. NOW DO YOU STILL WANT TO EAT MEAT ?