4 - Wednesday, September 25, 1985 - North Shore News

Being a vegetarian
won't save starving

I FIRST heard the phrase ‘‘these lips will never
kiss lips that have tasted flesh,’’ or words to that

effect, several years ago.

It was the vegetarian
equivalent of the anti-war
line popular during the
Vietnam debacle: “Girls say
yes to boys who say no.”

Let me say right off the
bat that I‘generally admire
vegetarians (well, except for
Hitler, of course) as people
of principle. I made a few
stabs — I guess that's not
‘the right word — at becom-
ing a vegetarian myself, but
found. myself coming back
to ‘meat, monster that Iam
in my soul of souls. ©

It’s not that I can pretend

‘ignorance about the horror ©

_.of killing animals. In my
:youth, I worked for a spell
in a ‘slaughterhouse. Not
pleasant,"

put me off eating meat, 1
fear nothing will, -

Yet foam outraged by

‘cruelty to animals. This par-
ticular contradictory attitude

‘is ‘nothing new, of course. I

cam one of those people the
‘18th Century humanitarian
essayist Oliver “Goldsmith
derided when he wrote:
.““They pity, and they eat the
objects of _their compas-
sion.”"

| BEYOND! REFUTE

‘ The moral ‘aspect of veg-

etatianism, it seems to’ me, is
‘beyond . refute.” “What *

- debatable, however, . is the

argument advanced by mili- —

tant. vegetarians that by cut-

ting meat out of our diet we.

- would., “somehow * “save © mil-°

_ lions. of “people .in © other |
‘countries. from starvation.

‘In this: otherwise ‘excellent

- book, Animal: Liberation, —

Peter Singer. makes the case

‘that. it. is “cheaper and more

efficient. to. feed humans

With grains. than to feed that ;
‘same grain to animals which. ‘

are then eaten by humans.
He says it takes 2} pounds
of protein to feed a calf to
produce a single pound of

animal protein for human _

consumption.
Ergo, ‘‘the: food wasted

by animal’ production i in the ~
‘- affluent’ nations. would be’

sufficient,
distributed, -
hunger ‘and malnutrition

: throughout the world.’’

Other animal rights ad-
vocates routinely. denounce
meat-eating as ‘‘a choice of
diet: which is in. effect con-
demning many humans to

* starve.”

_ © It’s an impressive point to
make. And I have assumed it
to be more or less true,
thereby adding enormously
to my burden of guilt. Now,
however, 1 have run across
an argument that says the
proposition. is hogwash, so
to speak.

LIBERATED GRAIN

if properly

Writing in a book called
Second Nature, The
Animal-Rights . Controversy,
based on a CBC radio series,

. Montreal broadcaster and
journalist Alan Herscovici
notes, somewhat scornfully,
that ‘‘apart from the rather
bizarre notion that entire na-
tions would sit by their air-
ports waiting for their daily
-rations to arrive, the argu-
ment ignores the larger pro-
blenis, of which hunger is

. actually a symptom: con-

my. friend.+ ‘Not:
‘pleasant at all. If that didn’t ’

to .end both

Stantly rising population
resulting in lowered quaiity
in life, breakdown of tradi-
tional social structures,
pollution, rapid destruction
ef wildlife habitat and of
other wild spaces.”
Herscovici doubts — and I

. have..to “agree — ‘that grain
“liberated” from: the pro-

duction of cattle in in-

*dustrialized countries would

‘go to’ feed. ‘the world’s
hungry. ‘‘if. this grain was
not used to feed cattle, it
would not bé grown at. all.
The meat-raising industry
doesn’t ‘merely consume
grain — it is closer to the

truth to-say that. it ‘creates’

it.”’

, Cud-chewing animals have
traditionally: made use of
marginal lands unsuited for
other uses. They ~consume
plants. that..are high. in

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cellulose and roughage, so

they often harvest and con-
vert to human use wild

Moreover, vast
monocultures of soybeans,
like any other monoculture,

by Bob Hunter

grasses which are otherwise
indigestible for human be-
ings.

Such animals: likewise
serve as a buffer for farm-
ers, consuming surpluses in
good times and being eaten
when crops are poor. or dur-
ing the winter.

ATTRACT DISEASE

Adds Herscovici: ‘They

synthesize certain amino
acids and B vitimins vital to
human life but not easily
found in a completely
vegetarian diet... Not least,
animal manure can be fed
back into the plant cycle as
fertilizer.’
. In Canada, most cattle
still graze on pasture land. A
great. part of Canadian
agricultural holdings are
suited for nothing else. .

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would attract
and diseases, requiring an
even greater use of chemical
pesticides
Look at the amount of
chemicals used in the pro-

duction of vegetables and ©

fruit!

The bottom line,
Herscovici argues, is that
“barely two per.cent of the
world’s land mass is’ suited
to vegetable or -cereal pro-
duction; forty per cent is
grazing land.”

Speaking for myself, I like
to believe, as Thoreau did,
that ‘‘it is the destiny of the
human race, in its. gradual
improvement, to leave off
eating animals.’’ Such a no-
ble goal won’t be reached by
using absurd arguments,
though. Stick to the moral
issues, veggies! You's re. on
safer ground. . .

COQUITLAM
1046 Austin Ave.
931-4551

insect pests

and ‘herbicides. q

Joy.
Metcalfe’s

| North Shore People

a ‘Thursday proved a very different sort of day for your intrepid

teporter, When RCMP Cpl. Don Bender of the VIP Securt-
ty Section asked Hotel Vancouver General Manager, Fran-
co Anglesic, and me, if we would play the visiting Prime
Minister of Europa, the Hon. Oswaldo Patnud and his
lovely wife, Angelique, in a day-long VIP security test involv- .
ing RCMP and City police forces, we jumped at the chance...

f IB Especially when Don advised us that the joint 32-member force
a would be unaware of the planned placard-carrying demonstrators
* and terrorist activities the organizers had arranged. While the

security group had knowledge of the schedule of events, they also
knew there would be a number of unplanned “surprises”. The
question of where or when really had them on their toes. Since
taost of the attention would centre on Franco, | was. advised to =
do my best to be a general nuisance. 9°. *" .
Gur day started at 8:30 a.m at the Vancouver: International
where we were greeted by Inter-Provincial Affatre’
811 Mercer end whisked to our Four Seasons hotel in a
seven-car motorcade led by 12 of the finest Vancouver motor- -
These burly bikers are superb, thoroughly tralned

to the nth degree. They stayed with us for the whole day, stopp- - i

ing and directing traffic and zasing the heavily congested traffic
routes. From an official visit to City Hall to toffee in in the Hotel -
Van to a Coast Guard inspection by the PM and a shopping
spree for Angelique, to UBC, Expo, Jericho, BC Place
Stadium and Oakridge, our security force never wavered.
They may have blushed, for instance, when Angelicue ‘decided’
to go to the ladies’ room at City Hall and queried whether they ~
should come in with her or again when she insisted on an opi- *
nion on how she'd look tn some lacy lingerle at La Jolie.
Madame Lingerie in Pacific Centre, but they never |

_ wavered, They may also have wanted to wring her neck when‘

the surprise terrorist attack occurred on the PM's limo at Jericho: @

“and she gave a horrendous ear-spliitting scream. Or when she” @
 . imperiously ordered that the entire motorcade ha! at a Baskin-
". Robbins on Cornwall so she could have a chocolate ce cream

cone and everyone had to scramble. Or when she demanded, .
as they roared down Georgie near Cardero, that they tur im:
mediately into the Westin Bayshore so she could have a cocktail
and then, after everyone was scurrying

all, turned on her hee! and left. She even demanded, tn a loud
voice in front of a crowd at the hotel, that she be saluted by her
RCMP driver, if you can imagine that. While these police officers .
from around the province were sorely tried on every front from
assassins, terrorists, demonstrators as well as their two VIP
guests, they came through with flying colours. From this first-
hand experience, I'd say that we have a police force to be proud
of and that any visiting dignitary couldn't be in better hands ...
For North Van's Franco Anglesto, once his resignation as GM
at the Hotel Van becomes official (and that’s going to shock a
lot of his friends and colleagues) p shaps he'll take up the life of

a professional actor — he's that good! ... As for me, one of my
bodyguards came over after the days activities and congratulated
me on my acting ability. “You were great! he said, “arrogant,

B ° demanding, implusive and flaky!” As I started to say thanks, Sgt.
* Tom Carroll, bellowed, ‘What do you mean, acting? It was

typecasting at its best!" ....
tee

Great turneut Saturday at Park Royal South as visiting
Soviet Ambassador, Alexi Redionov, presented prizes
and certificates to North Van students who participated in the
Russtan/North Shore Art Exchange program. Special
quest on the dais along with Mayors Baker, Loucks and
Humphreys, was Allan Duff, manager for British Alr-
ways, the company who made the whole idea possible ... It will
be Hollywood North Oct. 31 as the Lions Gate Medical
Research Foundation presents a gala fund-raising costume
party at Gordon Chow’s International Plaza. Billed as
a Come as Your Favorite Hollywood Star bal), organizers
are hoping to attract many of the leading stars who are in town
making movies to make brief appearances throughout the even-
ing. More info. later ... Following on the success of their Rock-
ing Horse Dreams cassette, North Van's Susan Trudell
and pianist dad, Pat, have collaborated on a new release for
Christmas called Cradles and Christmas. It's for the quiet
moments with the kids during the most exciting time of the year.
In the stores in two weeks or call 980-8802 for yours now ...
And finally, it's time to say goodbye and thank you to my friends
at Sussex as my column moves into the Friday paper starting
October 4, Well see you then, C!

Need the laiest on the
North Shore Real Estate
Market?
Call your Community
Specialists...Sussex
Realty 984-9711

. around to secure the area = i
» as she swept in, decided that she didn't want to drink there after -