If you're not veggie now...
Author | 02.05.2009 19:40
Ok, I'm sure its stuff a lot of us know already, and its mainstream press, but if reading this article doesn't make you think twice about eating that sausage, then I don't know what will...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/02/swine-flu-pandemic-mexico-pig-farming
Excerpt:
"If these new viruses are the toxic debt of the food system, the genetically improved pig is its highly engineered and artificial derivative. Pumped up like a bodybuilder, dependent on antibiotics and vaccines to keep it going, it has disproportionately large back legs to meet a market that likes hams more than shoulder of pork; it has tiny ears and no tail to limit the scars from the aggressive behaviour distressed conditions produce; and it is bred without hair for ease of slaughter. When herds of 5,000 of these genetically identical modern animals catch flu, it rips through them.
Large-scale producers pride themselves on their economic efficiency, but if the true costs of such polluting and disease-harbouring methods were internalised rather than externalised as environmental debts, they would be anything but good value. The cost of the flu pandemic will be unquantifiably large, but it is not the industry that will pay. Instead, the damage will affect the poorest disproportionately. It is ordinary Mexicans who are most affected now, just as the sub-prime mortgage crisis has made those at the bottom of the ladder homeless."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/02/swine-flu-pandemic-mexico-pig-farming Excerpt:
"If these new viruses are the toxic debt of the food system, the genetically improved pig is its highly engineered and artificial derivative. Pumped up like a bodybuilder, dependent on antibiotics and vaccines to keep it going, it has disproportionately large back legs to meet a market that likes hams more than shoulder of pork; it has tiny ears and no tail to limit the scars from the aggressive behaviour distressed conditions produce; and it is bred without hair for ease of slaughter. When herds of 5,000 of these genetically identical modern animals catch flu, it rips through them.
Large-scale producers pride themselves on their economic efficiency, but if the true costs of such polluting and disease-harbouring methods were internalised rather than externalised as environmental debts, they would be anything but good value. The cost of the flu pandemic will be unquantifiably large, but it is not the industry that will pay. Instead, the damage will affect the poorest disproportionately. It is ordinary Mexicans who are most affected now, just as the sub-prime mortgage crisis has made those at the bottom of the ladder homeless."
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not neecessarily
04.05.2009 10:52
that's the same logic that might say... unsustainable and inhumane slash-and-burn clearance of amazonian rainforest for soya plantations is a reason to stop eating beans & pulses.
many studies have found that the lowest impact diet contains a small amount of animal products - see for instance recent writings of Simon Fairlie in The Land magazine (article called "The Fat of the Land") with regard to fat consumption and the amount of land required to produce vegetable oils, and also his acclaimed article "can britain feed itself" (downloadable from
see also excellent research at
i believe it's best to argue for the adoption of very-low-meat diets, and to focus on where ALL food comes from (not just the meat! most veg also produced highly unsustainably). And to try and wrest control of the food debate back from the vegan fascists.
s
most soya is grown for animal feed for meat production
04.05.2009 22:49
Most soya is grown to be fed to animals for meat or dairy production. So meatheads indirectly consume much more soya than a vegan who eats soya burgers or soya milk or whatever. This kind of undermines the argument in your second paragraph.
vegan