Wendy Lyon wrote:
>
> On 8/26/05, andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > I
> > believe that unless you're pretty careful about your
> > proteins a vegetarian diet does stunt your growth
> > (hey, that's just a fact
>
> It's a fact that a lack of protein stunts growth. It is *not* a fact
> that this fate will befall any vegetarian who does not take careful
I have no opinion on vegetarianism as a personal choice or as a choice for particular groups.
I have serious objections to vegetarianism _as a political position_, since universal vegetarianism is ecologically impossible.
Consider. The only ecologically correct produce of the Great Plains, for example, is prairie grass. Hence both grain and beef cattle are inappropriate there. But the protein in that grass is not directly accessible to humans; hence the only _usable_ food that is ecologically safe to produce on the Great Plains is meat, though in rather less quantitiy than is now being produced there. That means (a) _less_ meat in the diet but (b) that meat _must_ be a part of the diet in any future society unless the Great Plains are to become a complete desert.
Also, there are many regions in the world in which the only ecologically acceptable food products are rabbits, chickens, goats, since extensive cultivation of either grain or fruits/vegetables in those areas would be ecologically destructive or simply impossible. I understand that this is true of a good deal of the land in Australia.
And so on. Human survival probably depends on a radical reduction in the amount of meat in the diet of the advanced industrial nations but NOT an elimination of meat.
Carrol