Although the ultimate privilege would be having sufficient arable land and time to harvest one's own food source, I would suggest that being a vegetarian is attainable only by those rich enough to afford a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables and soy products. Market prices (although lower than they should be) still assure that healthy alternatives in food consumption become yet another a socio-economic matter -- no more so than membership in a health club or living in a neighborhood safe enough to allow one's kids to play outdoors. After all, nothing fills one's stomach more substantially and for longer periods than meat protein.

In addition, when one considers the unavailability of plant matter as sustenance during the winter months for our earliest ancestors, we must assume they were occasionally forced to consume animal matter alone -- making us quite certainly omnivores.

Without doubt, vegetarianism is a healthy alternative, but we must also remember it is a lifestyle available solely to the economically-privileged.

You mistake the natural curiosity about something novel in a group with some weird dissective interest into your eating habits. I think you both prove the common assumption that vegetarians are typified by anger and self-absorption--why are your letters so bitter? I am jewish in a part of the country that is pretty jew-free. Whenever I am in a group here and my jewishness is uncovered, I am asked a bunch of questions about my religion. I chalk it up to people who lack something else to talk about--not guilt because the questioner isn't jewish.

To those who insist on demonizing meat-eaters (not all vegetarians). You can talk about the horrible practices of butchering animals but where do you think your tofu soy comes from? Brazil is the world's largest exporter of soy, they cut down hundreds of thousands of acres of rainforest a year to grow it. So we can save the cows, but that's all that'll be left. Pick your poison...

Starting in 2010 meat processing for US consumption will be limited to those amounts requires by those whose income exceeds 4 million dollars per annum to included all family members not legal eligible for single marriage to the wageowner...and resturant establishments with a licence...no further dangerous public cosumption or possessing of meat product will be necessary or legeal by 2020 January 17. House 3406-10 closed session note 4

To the last comment on Brazil growing soy (I´m Brazilian and a vegetarian): soy is being grown in Brazil precisely because it´s used to feed cattle. Or do you really think there´s such a demand for tofu in the world (by the way, not all vegetarians eat soy. I hate soy, for instance)?

Furthermore, the Amazon is being chopped down for two other main reasons: for wood and for creating fields to grow more cattle. Unfortunately, Brazil is also one of the largest meat producers in the the world (both poultry and bovine). The lobby to keep things as they are is too strong. Suffices to say that the governor of one of the states that holds a good part of the Amazon forest and of nearly the entire Pantanal region is simply the world´s largest soy producer.

To sum things up, the meat industry is in good part to blame for the destruction of the Amazon. And although people seem very shocked by the trees that are chopped down to create furniture, no one is alarmed by the destruction of the world´s richest ecosystem for providing McDonald´s with is quarter pound or for putting steaks in the tables of the Outbacks of the world.

A quality analogy, and quite insightful. I couldn't agree more.

It seems like the three subjects bound to generate the most vicious letters around here are (1) race, (2) parenting, and (3) what people eat (or don't eat).

I guess it's just human nature to separate ourselves into groups who either really do feel morally superior or are perceived by others as feeling morally superior. (I don't know who's worse, the former or the latter.) We can be so predictable that way. Vegetarians vs. carnivores/omnivores. Vegetarians vs. vegans. Mothers and fathers vs. the childfree. SUV drivers vs. hybrid drivers. Hybrid drivers vs. bike riders. I'm a firm believer that just about anyone can be obnoxious about their beliefs. But, it makes life interesting.

Am I going to talk about what I eat? No. Freakin'. Way.

Most americans eat way too much meat. Besides constipation, it also inteferes with calcium in one's body, making american's RDA of calcium much higher than it should be, and contributing to osteoporosis, etc. However, diet is complex and people vary. For example, Eskimos live on all-meat diets yet often enjoy good health.

To be more dangerous to our National Security than Islamofacist terrorist hordes...therefore commencing immediately all butchers are to report to Presidential Reserve Insurgent Coliform Cleasning -(PRICC) Headquarters, with their personal implements...to begin the cleansing of the species homo sapiens – this natural cleansing process previously avoided by the formation of society and civil law...The law which is hereby suspended by the fully lawful signing statement by Supreme Commander Bush

...Bushwacking (extermination of vegetarians ) will be minimally disruptive to societal norms - as their bodies decompose into Organic Humus (TM HALLIBURTON) in 24 hours due to the salad present in their bowels...this is akin to Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC)...but with a much slower burn rate due to the phallic reinsertion prior to excrementia and slow release of alcohol and toluene - byproducts of the illegal ingestion of vegetable matter without the concurrent presence of Texas Beef or Quail (Cheney 3104-10).

AGENDA

Welcome 0800

Brunch 1000 (Persian fingers and Iranian epidittimus)

Closed Session 1100-1300

Embark Mission 1330

I don't get hung up on it, except with all the chemicals and drugs and how unsanitary the processes are -- you just need to ride past a chicken or pig farm to smell just how bad it is.

The concentration of agriculture into a few corporate hands is probably one of the biggest problems in the overall process -- their worst practices become the industry standard, instead of alternative processes being put into practice (whether free-range, organic, etc.)

I wonder if the quality of the produce were better, whether it would reduce intake of it, paradoxically enough. Just like how real sugar and butter satisfies more than corn syrup and margarine, so (I imagine) would meat from healthy, drug-and-hormone-free animals probably be healthier and more satisfying for those who choose to eat it.

Unfortunately, as currently constructed, the junk-food (meaning food that is mass-marketed with profit emphasized over quality -- e.g., what's good for the food producer, versus what's good for the food consumer) is cheaper than the quality food -- there's a market advantage in the way things are tipped toward the bottom feeders.

Lest vegetarians think they are immune to the problem of agribusiness, the concentration of agricultural capital ensures even a vegetarian a diet rich in petrochemical fertilizers, corn syrup, pesticides, toxic sewer sludge masquerading as healthy fertilizer (e.g., "biosolids"), GM-modified crops foisted on consumers without their consent, etc.

The whole American food production system needs an overhaul to reflect consumer health needs, versus the desire of the industry for maximum profits. So, let the vegetarians and the meat eaters put down their forks and knives and find common cause in the pursuit of better quality for the food they choose to eat.