meat eatting and the environment

[Robert Ukeiley <rukeiley@igc.apc.org>]

I would just like to add/respond to a few points regarding
meat eatting.
First off, of course I am not saying that eatting meat is
more of a health problem than eatting poisoned meat.  What
I am saying is that our health, whether you are willing
to admit it or not, is connected to the global environment.
The product of meat damages our environment by, for example,
causing the depletion of top soil when land is cleared for
grazing.  This damage to our environment eventual hurts
our health.
I guess I beleive in accountability.  It is a ranchers
fault that the environment is being hurt by their cattle
so I have little or no pity if they lose their job.  They
had little or no pity when they hurt the earth.
Ranchers are part of the problem.  If they stop being
ranchers then they start being part of the problem.
I have watched far too many coalitions and enviro
groups try to welcome all from the other
side only to lose their vision and direction.
But the burden of restoring and protecting
our environment does not rest soley with
ranchers, it rests with us all.  
Although I enjoyed Lois Gibbs' dying from
dioxin, I could not disagree with her more
when she talked about how "americans" should
still be able to retain their present life style
and not be poisoned by dioxin.  People should
be free from dioxin but dioxin and toxic chemicals
are only one problem.  The root of the problem, including
toxic chemicals, is over consumption.  Until we all
are willing to consume less, there will not be any
long term sound solutions.
Robert Ukeiley