meat vs veg in Asia

[Guest guest]

fwd........

 

Hi,

 

Re Heifer Project International

 

Using animals " as a tool " is not a direct way of addressing what is

occurring

when people are encouraged to eat the flesh of dead animals as part of their

diet.

Animals are raised and killed to be eaten and this is not humane or healthy.

 

" Long before a family receives an animal they receive training

on proper care of the animals as well as for themselves and their villages. "

 

This smacks of other USA campaigns such as 4H that " educates people "

how to exploit animals. 4H targets school aged children.

 

There are other aid agencies helping people obtain clean water and

providing tools and help which do not make eating animals their main focus.

 

" 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. "

 

Teaching people to rely on eating dead animals for basic survival is a

mis-informed

philosophy. Many people in third world countries are vegetarian. There are

millions

of vegetarians in India. Raising animals to eat is not something that should

be

promoted in poor countries. It is less demanding on the land to be veg than

it is

to try to keep farm animals fed if people are poor. Introduced farm animal

also degrade

the environment. Asia has many diseases that kill farm animals whether they

are sick

or healthy and there have been many episodes of farm animals in Asia being

slaughtered

to stop the spread of diseases that affect animals and humans.

 

 

" Unfortunately, vegetarianism is a luxury of the first world. "

 

This is untrue. There are vegetarians in Asia who are healthier than

Europeans.

Unfortunately U$A based fast food companies are seeing Asia as a market for

their

junk food. Subsequently, incidences of illnesses such as diabetes are set to

rise in

Asia as U$A culture invades their shores.

 

I have Asian friends who come from different parts of Asia. They are not big

meat eaters

although some of them eat fish. They have taught me about foods they eat

which

are not meat based. Some of them have family members who are vegetarian and

they have told me how some of these family members have lived to a very old

age.

 

There are parts of the culture of these people that we could learn from. One

man came

from a village that is inaccessible for part of the year yet people in his

village have

learnt through generations how to preserve food and to use special foods to

survive year

to year.

 

" 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. "

 

As I said, meat animals are not the only source of protein in third world

countries.

Also, they can carry diseases etc and are not economical in many cases.

I am sure experts could easily work out plans with different communities

which did not

include eating meat as a basis for survival. There are many Indians and

Asians who are

vegetarian because of culture and they are not sufferring protein

deficiency.

 

" 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. "

 

I am not a scientist but I would be very concerned about the above

statement.

Putting animal faeces into ponds and feeding the fish to pigs and the pigs

to people

seems to me a recipe for trouble. Many diseases can transmit from animal to

animal

by the faecal oral route and in China , viral heamorrhagic disease of

rabbits first emerged

in an area where animal exreta was put into ponds in which were grown water

peanuts

and vegetables. These vegetables were then given to Angora rabbits flown in

from

Germany in 1984 and a new killer virus emerged. It is scientific fact that

animals

may shed virus in their droppings and this spreads disease to other animals.

I would not want to live near any project like this.

 

 

Marguerite