On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 10:59:28 -0400, "C. James Strutz"
> wrote:

>
>"Richard Periut" > wrote
>> Marcelino wrote:
>> > You really need to check this out... Pork eater especially.
>> > http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs....nahan-pig-farm
>> >
>> A video which portrays a few sick and frustrated freaks, doesn't stand
>> as the standard for killing pigs in the pork industry.
>>
>> It's just amazing the way these hypocrites try to raise awareness of
>> animal suffering, without shedding an iota of evidence to human
>> suffering; the children dying of hunger and *Curable* diseases in
>> Africa, India, et cetera.
>>
>> I'm sure these people, with their cotton candy lives, driving their
>> BMW's, and drinking California wine, would rather see a whale, a pig, a
>> chicken, or a mink saved, before 10 human children can be fed and healed.
>
>Raising livestock as a food source is a huge inefficiency of resources. The
>amount of grain used to feed livestock could feed many times the number of
>people than the meat could feed. Livestock also consume huge amounts of
>fresh water which is in short supply in many parts of the world.

And non-food animals don't?

>Furthermore, many of the hungry people of the world couldn't afford to buy
>meat even if you could get it to them easily (it must be refrigerated).

As a recent book about the history of commercial ice use (drat, can't
find it) details, refrigeration only became common in industrialized
countries around the time of WWII. OTOH, people have been eating
animals (and fish and fowl) for all of human history. The relative
expense of animal protein is vastly dependent on local conditions.

>It's
>the meat eaters of the world who are contributing more to world hunger...

Bosh. If one chooses vegetarianism out of ethical, religious, or
health reasons, I have no quarrel. However, "world hunger" is caused
by many factors, not least of which is war and civil chaos. There was
plenty of food in Somalia as we all watched video of starving
children. If I stop eating chicken, it's not going to make it
economically feasible to ship surplus US grain to Africa.