I want to thank John Eddy and Michelle Mecteaux for their excellent and “spot on” letters regarding the meat industry’s sizable contribution to global warming. It is heartening to me to know that more people are “getting it.” Unfortunately, the media, the government and even the environmental NGOs still do not speak out about it either because of lack of awareness or fear of being politically incorrect.
Unfortunately, our meat-oriented American lifestyle shows only a few signs of changing in spite of the unspeakable suffering of “food” animals and the threats to human health caused by factory farms and the rising death toll of people in the prime of life from diabetes, heart disease and cancer. One can only hope that concern for the future of our planet will finally move people to alter their lifestyles. Such is the power of the USDA, which is heavily influenced by the meat and dairy industries, that most people believe eating tons of meat annually is the only way to stay fit. When I mention I am a vegetarian, I can count on being asked the question, “How do you get enough protein?” This has been going on for more than 30 years now, and I have not failed yet to get sufficient protein. As a physician recently said on the program, “Sunday Morning,” “Having the USDA decide what you should eat is like having Al Capone do your income taxes.”
Jean Cobb
St. Agatha
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