Guest guest Posted December 4, 2000 Report Share Posted December 4, 2000 Hi all, sorry for cross posting but here is an email from another list some of you may like to address. This person sees the meat culture option as the only option to help Asian people survive poverty and ill health. I will address this in my own way but if anyone on the list would like to answer some of the allegations here, go right ahead. Marguerite Fellow Animalia members: I simply cannot let this one slip by. I see that one of our members feels the need to speak out against Heifer Project International. Unfortunately, this person and possibly many of you are uniformed about HPI and the situation in the third world. I joined the email group about a month ago and as some of you may remember, I sent out an introduction about myself. I am a veterinarian and while traveling around the world with my husband, we volunteered for HPI at their Thailand office. I feel it important to state my opinion in light of the work I saw firsthand. HPI's vision is one of sustainable development focused on rural farmers. Their goal is an increase in income to these farmers so that there is no incentive to " move to the city " for a better life. As we all know this usually leads to depravation and often virtual slavery either to drugs or abusive industry. HPI does not " give " away animals but uses them as a tool. Only families ready and able to accept responsibility are entrusted with receiving the " living gift " . Long before a family receives an animal they receive training on proper care of the animals as well as for themselves and their villages. They learn about improved sanitation and developing clean water. Additionally, the animal is not a direct gift but more of a loan that must be repaid by passing on some of the offspring to others in need. This method of " repaying the gift " teaches the villagers and their very impressionable children the value of responsibility and gives them a feeling of self worth because it wasn't just given to them. They had to work for it. These people want to make something of themselves and their families. They don't want to sit around and receive handouts. HPI gives them that opportunity. Additionally, some of the projects are not animal based. In Thailand we saw villages working on grafting fruit trees I think it is important to note that all of these villages are already raising animals for food. However, their animals are usually malnourished and ill as the lack of proper care allows diseases and parasites to run rampant throughout the village. It was not unusual to run into a 30% mortality rate. The knowledge that HPI brings to these villages truly improves the quality of life for the animals as well as the villagers. I agree that the idea of an all-vegetarian world is great. It would be terrific to see humans and non-humans living harmoniously together without the need to eat one another. Unfortunately, vegetarianism is a luxury of the first world. Have you been to the third world? Do you understand that most people (at least for sure in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa) eat a primarily vegetarian diet? Kwashiorkor (protein deficiency) in the third world is a serious concern since the primary diet for people of Asia is rice and vegetables, for people in Africa, it is corn and vegetables. Generally, they do not have access to the variety of protein rich foods that are needed for a well balanced diet. You are right that a good piece of land is best used for plant based agriculture but we are talking about animals that are eating the leftovers from the humans, the parts of the plants that humans don't eat such as rice bran, banana stalks, corn stalks, etc. Many of these animals are able to take the parts of the plants that we humans simply excrete and turn it into useable food. Their microbes break it down into B-vitamins that their bodies can use. Remove the intensive agriculture picture that exists in the US out of your mind because that is not what we are dealing with here. HPI's goal in any of these farms is to create an integrated system. For instance, in Thailand, they are working with villages to have layer chicken houses (these are open and free range, not confined into small boxes). The manure from the chickens is used to add nitrogen to the fish ponds. The fish gives protein to the people and the left over fish parts can be fed to the pigs. The pig manure as well as some from the chickens can then be used on the fields to improve the quality of the fields on which they are growing their rice and vegetables. It was also mentioned in the letter that some animals, " such as oxen, are used to pull plows " . Maybe your answer is mechanization. Well, unfortunately, motorized plows are not economical for most of these people. In a small farm situation, the motorized version does not save them any time and in fact costs them money. It costs them much less to have a buffalo that grazes than to have a machine that breaks down constantly and requires gasoline that may be many miles away. I would encourage anyone reading this to visit a third world country, get out of the five-star hotel and into the villages. Get in touch with any NGO and try to find out as much as you can about the situation of the most impoverished peoples. Become informed before you start making blanket statements about how other people living in harsh unforgiving conditions should live their lives. If anyone has any questions about Heifer Project International, visit their website at www.heifer.org or maybe visit one of their farms in Massachusetts or Arkansas. I would also be happy to tell you more about our experience and would be happy to talk to any groups who have or are interested in giving to HPI. A good portion of their money comes from religious organizations. If your church, synagogue, temple, or mosque is interested in donating, please don't hesitate to get in touch with myself or someone directly at HPI. Below is a letter that you may want to use to send to the list of supporters of HPI to tell them what a great thing it is that they are giving to such a worthy organization. Dear supporter of Heifer Project International: Thank you. I wanted to say that I am happy to see that you have chosen such a worthy organization who cares about the most impoverished people living on the fringes of their society. It is organizations like HPI that give these people a sense of hope and a feeling of accomplishment. You may have received or are receiving letters that ask you to stop giving. Please ignore these letters. They were written by people who are uniformed about what really can help in the third world. HPI turns all of your dollars into real progress for the individual, the family, the community and the country. Again, thank you, (sign your name here) If you want to sent this letter as a group, I have put the addresses into a list that you can copy and drag to your " To " box. support, pr, mcelroy, carterweb Below is also the same list that was on the original letter about HPI. Sincerely, Evelyn Orenbuch, DVM evelyno The Christian Science Monitor The Christian Science Publishing Society One Norway Street Boston, MA 02115 e-mail: support (csmonitor.com) web site: www.csmonitor.com The Boston Globe 135 Morrissey Blvd. P. O. Box 2378 Boston, MA 02107-2378 e-mail: pr (globe.com) Web site: http://www.boston.com/globe The Rocky Mountain News 400 W. Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80204 Mr. Jack McElroy, General Manager Phone: - (303) 892-2495 e-mail: mcelroy (rockymountainnews.com) web site: http://www.rockymountainnews.com The Honorable Jimmy Carter The Carter Center One Copenhill Atlanta, GA 30307 Fax: 404-420-5145 E-mail: carterweb (emoty.edu) Web site: http://www.cartercenter.org/aboutus.html --- To post a message to the list, send to: hsi-animalia To to AnimaliA from another e-mail address, send a message to -hsi-animalia. Leave the subject line and body of the message blank. 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