At 12:37 PM 2/25/99 -0300, Axel wrote:
>At 10:07 25/02/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>
>> -Converting the world to vegetarianism would NOT resolve famine
>>problems. Even in countries where enough food is produced, some people
>>are still starving.
>
>hi, jean louis. while it is true that the cause of people starving is also
>economic in nature, the fact that a high percentage of the world production
>of grains is given to animals can not be overlooked. i do not know about RAF
>for health reasons, but from an economic/environmental point of view, there
>is NO valid reason to waste much of the food of the world feeding animals.
...
>john robbins says, if a big part of the grain and beans produced in the
>world are feed to the animals, you can be sure that people will NOT get
>them;

Cattle should eat grass, not grains, not beans, not animals.

>. it is not only that people starve, there is massive
>worldwide environmental destruction of all kinds as a result of animal
>husbandry. it destroys OUR world, despite of our diet, it pollutes rivers,
>depletes the soils of life and vegetation, destroys rainforest, creates
>unnatural man made environments. also wildlife is decimated, animals are
>killed to make room for cattle, the soil is compacted, etc.

It is not animal husbandry that destroys the environment, but many of the
ways that animal husbandry is practiced, and by poor agri-farming in
general, even of the grains and beans.
In fact, animals are needed for the continued fertility of the soil, which
is one of the reasons why monocultures of cereals, etc cause loss of soil
fertility.

>
> if some of the grain and beans are NOT feed to the animals, then there
>is a chance, at least in theory, that some people will be fed.

for now, but the world population of people is exploding, and unless the
population growth is stopped, there is no natural way of growing food that
will prevent massive starvation some time in the future.  If the world's
deserts could be regenerated for farming ( and this is a conundrum is it
not, since farming has produced  or helped to produce many of the deserts)
then the starvation would be postponed.
Proper farm  management is the first need in order to prevent further loss
of fertility in existing farms, otherwise the quality and eventually
quantity of food produced will decrease.
And industrial waste disposed into the sea will eventually make seafood too
poisonous.

Perhaps this is the safeguard against over-population: self-destruction
through stupid pratices!

>
>i do not know how to harmonize the fact that some people improve their
>health with RAF or cooked animal products with the above, though. there is
>something to both ideas. that=B4s why i think the vegan study klapper is=
> going
>to conduct can provide good info.
>

If the blood-types of the subjects are taken into account, and all 4 main
blood-types represented fairly, the study will show that for optimum health
some people are carnivores, some vegetarians, some lacto-vegetarian and some
a sort-of-mixture.  This is genetically determined.
Thus arguments that "everyone should be vegetarian" are false if their
intention is to have healthy people.

Lynton