From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Jun 10 2001 - 14:30:08 MDT
Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
> > Part of that other subject is that I've seen figures claiming
> > there are some billions of head of cattle being raised for
> > slaughter, milk and so on. It takes a large part of the farmed
> > land to feed these cattle. Arguably many more people could be
> > fed healthy diets for a fraction of the land used if the people
> > were vegetarian. This has large impact on the ecological
> > balance of earth and on the hunger rate.
>
> THe problem with this logic is that historically, societies based on agriculture
> are far more population explosive than hunter gatherer societies.
How is that relevant. I am talking about herding societies that
came in with agriculture and are dependent on it.
Hunter/gatherers have nothing to do with it.
> All that
> eliminating the cattle does is prolong the inevitable: humanity needs to take
> command of its gonads.
I don't agree it is "inevitable" in quite the sense many mean by
that but that is a different subject.
If it gives us more food at lower cost with less wear and tear
on the planet NOW, then going more vegetarian is still a fine
idea - regardless of other questions such as population control.
>The organized agriculture, which is primarily focused on
> production of plant matter for human consumption, not livestock consumption, is
I am not so sure. It would be good to have the numbers. I have
read somewhere (reference not at hand) that without feeding
cattle (billions of head today) we would only need 1/17 of the
land now cultivated to feed everyone a vegarian diet.
> THE greatest negative impact upon the ecology. It is vegetarians that are to blame
> for the ecological devastation of the modern world, not the hunters (even whale
> hunting was a side effect of the industrialization of agriculture, as whale based
> lubricants were needed for lubricating farm machines and industrial machines that
> processed plant food for humans.)
Wrong.
- samantha
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