At 06:18 PM 8/2/99 +0200, you wrote:
>
>As soon as you have more than 10% of your food from supermarcets
>it'll be *opposite*. Because everything non-vegetarian you get there
>simply is produced by *tenfold* the impact on nature because
>just that same desctructive fertilizers and so on are used
>to nourish the animals before you get it.

This oft repeated factoid is a favorite argument among veggie types.
Unfortunately, it no more holds water than Amadeus' earlier claim that
prairies are composed of annual grasses.

I grew up on a farm, and my brother-in-law is a rancher.  So I have some
basis for my opinions.  No pesticides etc.  are used on the rangeland where
cattle graze.  Until recently, beef was wholly grass fed.  Today, they tend
to be fattened before market, which does involve feeding grain -- but less
than veggies claim.  Yes, the grains typically are grown with pesticides,
etc.  BUT, what amadeus neglects to mention is that cattle do have to be
grain fed.  They are because americans like fatty meat.  Wholly grass fed
beef is available is some places, and certainly the overall trend is toward
is grain fattening.

A paleo diet consisting of large amounts of grass fed beef (and other
meats) would surely be less ecologically harmful than a veggie diet.

>If you want minimal nature impact for whole society,
>IMHO the only way is to look for
>organic producing.

which extensively uses the by-products of animal agriculture ...