- SINCE THE beginning of the year, my. wife and I have been trying seriously to change our diet. We've tried this sort of thing before, often enough. God knows, But it isn’t a question of losing weight. f mean, that would be nice .. but it’s not the point. Slowly — I should say. very much against our wills ~ it has been drawing on us that, sooner or laier, if you want to call yourself environment-friendly, and respansi- ble about your family’s health. you have to question eating meat of any kind, at least if it is the product of factory farming. It isn't just the fertilizer and manure flowing down into the creeks that is the problem, It isn’t even the morality of being part of a system that subjects animals to | incredibly cruel conditions on a -mass basis. What I mean is, while it is cer- tainly a moral and ethical debate, it ~ is something slightly more funda- -mental.than that, taking the narrow- ly human point of view. _ That is to say, even if you reject “the ethical and moral arguments, ‘there's plenty of self-interested rea- sons for pause before you sink your teeth into that chloramphenicol- injected steak, drain that glass of - telracycline-dosed milk, or cut into that synthetic enzyme- engineered ‘slice of cheese. I think it’s'a practical matter of human well-being. Our health, - we're faiking about here. How long - we live. Oui fertility. Our kids’ fer- tility. The genetic stuff. ‘The evidence is in: overwhelm- ingly, it shows that the chemicals, ‘growth serums, antibiotics, sulpha ; "drugs, preservatives, and extra: " genes that are pumped into cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens, do, , indeed, concentrate in our bodies, ‘up here at the top of the food chain. They have been ‘strongly linked - with a massive (some figures say - 50%) drop in the male sperm, count _ in the industrialized countries. The artificial stuff in our food has also been tied to premature - Standard Equipment 18 Litre DOHC * 138 BHP. *4 wheel ABS . disc brakes * Power windows, locks & mirrors *« AM/FM six speaker stereo | P.S. THE NEW 3181 CONVERTIBLES HAVE JUST ARRIVED! Park Shore 1500 FELL AVENUE NORTH VANCOUVER STRICTLY PERSONAL pubescence, hormonal changes, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and a general weaken- ing of immunological systems. In a sense, additives in our food —— vegetables as well as meat — are the invisible pollutants. We can see smog. We can smell a pulp mill. But the food and milk looks good, tastes good, and can be foraged for easily at a supermarket nearby, thanks to all those trucks . you'see spewing diesel fumes into the air. ‘ Obviously, by generating clouds of greenhouse gases in the process “ of conveying herds and flocks one way and transporting refrigerated carcasses the other, we’re not doing much for the atmosphere — which is definitely not in our long-term interests. And that’s because the distance bet-veen the place where food is grown and where it is con- sumed has opened astronomically.- In fact, with the advent of agri- ” business, farming itself has changed so completely that it is scarcely rec- ‘ognizable. You still see a few silos and cows and sheep wandering about as you roar down the highway, bur most of the foad we buy in super- markets is provided by large agri- cultural conglomerates which have put the screws to the family farm. 1otors 985-9344 big time. I's been worse news for the ani- mals and birds who have to endure appalling conditions in modern fie- tory farms. fronically, in an era when almast everybody seems to have acquired at least some increased sensitivity to the “natural” world, most of us have been blind te the cruelly hiuk- ing place right under our noses, That is to say: much of the food we're cating nowadays got to plates at the cheap price it did because of the unspeakably inhumane tech- niques of industrialized farming. It’s not that we're particularly crucl in the killing of the animals and birds any longer. Where our cruelty outstrips itself today is in the torture we inflict on them by the way we make them live, To achieve economies of scale, meat producers have adopted assembly lines, conveyor belts, and Muorescent lighting in the place of the traditional barnyard. Chickens, stuffed into cages like sardines, are exposed to excessive light, while pigs, confined to pens not much bigger, are left in the darkness to keep them confused, and calves are held in boxes so small they tan’t {urn around. . But again, as J say, you can close your eyes to the whole, awful system. It’s easy for a human to do.- As Cleveland Amory once remarked: “Man has an infinite capacity to rationalize his capacity, especially when it comes to some- thing he wants to eat.” The gist of it is we decided to gel serious about extracting our- selves and our kids from the whole, sorry mess. We would start by eliminating meat from our diet, and: all poultry products like milk, cheese and eggs — just to sce what * would happen. Would we start shuddering from steroid withdrawal symptoms? Would | start drooling at the sight: | of rabins or squirrels or the neigh- | bor’s dog? Maybe we’d have to take turns chaining earn other to the kitchen table, witha sign hung around the neck, saying: STOP ME’ BEFORE I KILL AGAIN. THE ULTIMATE DRIVING EXPERIENCE. How would we deal with the social embarrassment of being invited out to dinner by meat-caters who didn't realize we were trying would the children say when they brought friends over to stay for sup- per, only to discover there were no wieners or baloney? Ah, the lessons to become vegetarians? Whit that lie ubead... ay OPTICAL SHOP Exclusive rights for Optical Supplies & Services. 518 sq. ft. ‘Contact WENDY 231-8919 Opening This Summer ATTENTION DEVELOPERS § & CONTRACTORS. {| + Washes & aries in one machine + Easy front load « Same space as dishwasher + Uses less than 1/2 water + European quality - Ideal for condos, apartments, cabins, atc, FOR DETAILS 286-1087 CUSTOM BEDSPREADS, TRACKS AND VALANCES Labour $8.50 per panel unlined, $9.50 lined. CUSTOM DRAPERIES & BLINDS At low, low prices. 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