permaculture

[<bmn@iglou.com>]

I basically feel like people are the way they want to be with respect to 
their choices.  That said, I hardly feel the website below is without 
bias.  There are papers ad nauseum on all sides of this issue.  If people 
are going to make choices, it behooves them to avail themselves to as 
wide a body of knowledge as possible before making a life changing 
decision.  The aformentioned website ain't it... but it is one spot on 
the continuum.  Good luck to all...whatever they choose.

-----Original Message-----
From: Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 12:13:04 -0800
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Remembering the stakes/animals

> If you go to the amazing website, http://www.beyondveg.com/index.shtml
> and
> paw thru the scientific papers there (later I can give a more exact URL
> for
> the reference, if need be) you'll see that there is no link between
> meat and
> chronic disease, since many cultures that eat far more meat than ours
> have
> less of these chronic diseases. The link is probably to our sedentary
> lifestyle, processed and poisoned food, and a lot of other factors, all
> of
> which are exacerbated by a high animal-fat diet. The above quote is
> another
> example of coming to a conclusion first and bending the data to support
> it.
> 
> The website is maintained by  a former vegetarian and is full of
> research--good, peer reviewed stuff--showing that the health benefits
> of
> veganism and vegetarianism are very difficult to demonstrate and that
> many
> of the claims for them are simply false. It's been useful for me when I
> run
> into people who assume that permies must be vegetarian. But it's a huge
> site
> and can take some time to digest (pun semi-intended). I tried for years
> to
> be vegetarian, mostly out of guilt, and now that I eat meat again, am
> healthier and feel more in tune with nature. I'm partial to the
> predator-prey relationship; feels like an important one to have.