Here is a letter to the editor taken out of yesterday's Denver paper (Rocky
Mountain News):
Letters to the Editor, February 10
February 10, 2004

Worldwide vegan diet would be catastrophic

With the recent mad cow disease scare I've noticed a lot of people have
suggested that we all eat vegetarian. Let's think about that for a minute. Here
are a few reasons why a total vegetarian planet would be a horrific idea:

1. We would have to clear billions of acres of land, rainforests, national
parks, etc., to make room to grow crops.

2. Deer, elk, cattle, sheep, goats, etc., would wreak havoc on those crops
because their natural food source would no longer be available to them. We
would not like that and we would insist that someone do something about it.
What do we do? Shoot them? Chase them away? To where? We would come to look at
them as "pests." These predators would eventually become extinct due to lack of
natural prey.

Until then, I'm sure they would find humans pretty tasty.

3. Without humans and predators keeping down their populations, deer, elk,
etc., will die from sickness, disease and overcrowding, eventually becoming
extinct themselves.

4. With no room to breed livestock, many goods and foodstuffs, like wool and
dairy products, will no longer be available.

5. Our oceans would be fished to extinction. Yes, all the vegetarians I know
eat fish and seafood.

6. Without rainforests, global warming will accelerate out of control, creating
floods in many parts of the world and drought in others.

7. What would happen if we had a drought? A lot of human deaths would occur, of
course, but our crops will die, too. The planet will become a desiccated
tinderbox waiting for something to ignite it.

Human beings are omnivores, meaning we eat fruits, vegetables, nuts . . . and
meat. If you wish to eat vegetarian, fine. In fact, if we all decided to be
totally carnivorous (eating only meat products) a similar worldwide catastrophe
would occur. We need to be omnivorous. Otherwise, this planet will die.

We'll be moving to Mars a lot sooner than we think.