In the scheme of things, slavery ended recently. Racism still exists. And the Holocaust ended recently. African Americans were enslaved longer than they've been free. People are still killing each other. There's still ethnic cleansing. We have a long way to go before all of us stop eating and using animals. It won't do you any good if you spend your life in misery about what's happening around you and judging others. It's going to take hundreds of years, or a mass epidemic (probably the latter since animal production is just not sustainable).

Chill out.

All you can do is be the change and be kind and loving. If you alienate others with your militancy, then you're harming the animals, the earth, and starving people. If you help others to at least cut down on their animal based food, then you're helping animals, the earth, and starving people.

And for non-veg people out there, you actually are helping people when you don't eat animals.

To learn more about global hunger and how a plant based diet addresses that cause most effectively, please visit:

The world's problems on a plate

Meat production is making the rich ill and the poor hungry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,717044,00.html

http://www.ffl.org/ffl_fww_hsol.php

http://www.all-creatures.org/discuss/loaves.html

http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/

I was a vegan for about a year and have been vegetarian for 7 years. I also was heavy into animal rights for many years, and still consider taking animal life to be one of the most horrendous things we do as a society.

However, my work in the field of agriculture has brought me face to face with the reality of the situation: we have to kill animals. Every time a farmer plows his field or harvests her wheat or soybeans, thousands of field mice, rodents, insects, rabbits, and the like meet a horrible death. I've personally had to kill many animals myself on my own farm as part of my pest control program and I welcome deer hunters on my property.

Not even the vegan can escape responsibility for these deaths. Arguably, many more animals are killed or have their habitats disrupted by the production of plant food than meat. A cow raised on pasture, for instance, can feed many people many times over. The soybean, on the other hand, takes thousands of acres, tons of pesticides, industrial harvesting equipment, and

This is the only good argument I have ever heard against veganism (All others fall pathetically short, ridiculously justifying the murder of millions animals). Certainly the goal of killing no animals is noble, but in our modern, industrialized agricultural economy it is impossible. It's just too naive to argue that the vegan has no blood on their hands simply because they aren't eating flesh.

The best we can do is eat as much locally produced food we can from farmers who minimize their impact on animal life. For protein, I would argue that grassfed or pastured beef, poultry and eggs from local farmers are much better for animal life in general than soy or bean products shipped thousands of miles from huge industrial distributors, even if the soy is organic.

I have started eating meat exclusively from such sources on rare occasions. I am not deluding myself about being pure, so I can be aware when I am making a choice to take life. That doesn't make it right, but it certainly is a humbling thought.

I agree. In another topic, a well-known author posted in order to refute something in a book review. I was very glad to know the author was reading and posting. But then I thought--how do we know that was really him? What's to stop right-wingers from posting, "This is Peter Frieblich of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Recent research shows we were all wrong! There is no such thing as global warming! Party on!"

The letter(s) by Mary ought to be scrubbed. Not because they're poorly written diatribes that twist information and come to conflicting conclusions, not because they are delusional, not because the author--whomever he or she may be--can't write.

It's the personal address and phone number that bother me.

Look, normally I'd say anyone dumb enough to post such info deserves what they get. But even lousy letter-writers need some protection. Besides, who's to say someone who dislikes this person hasn't chosen to post some ex's info online? You (Salon) have no way to verify this information is correct, so in the interests of all your readers you ought to scrub it, pronto. Some other schmuck dislikes Mary and posts her personal info at Salon, suddenly Mary is bombarded with phone and junk mail. Worse, that info could lead to phone and credit scams.

Please, unless and until you have a personal verification system up and running, scrub that letter.

Thanks!

Happy for the article, it says what many people feel in the movement. Unfortunately, this world is backwards. Ignorance is bliss. I think many animal rights activists suffer depression, as I bet many women suffragetes and abolitionists did many years ago. Those who inflict this pain do so without any remorse or even cognitive attention to the suffering heaped upon it's victims. And this world rewards those that inflict this pain. If you weren't depressed, you would be suffering from insanity.

It is the people who inflict this pain that should be seeking psycotherapy, but they have not acknowledged that they have a problem. When the whole world supports this view, it is very difficult to have the public see that there is a problem. And no one wants to change their view..... it is too much work.

Happy for the article, it says what many people feel in the movement. Unfortunately, this world is backwards. Ignorance is bliss. I think many animal rights activists suffer depression, as I bet many women suffragetes and abolitionists did many years ago. Those who inflict this pain do so without any remorse or even cognitive attention to the suffering heaped upon it's victims. And this world rewards those that inflict this pain. If you weren't depressed, you would be suffering from insanity.

It is the people who inflict this pain that should be seeking psycotherapy, but they have not acknowledged that they have a problem. When the whole world supports this view, it is very difficult to have the public see that there is a problem. And no one wants to change their view..... it is too much work.

Mary Ann Schemenauer

2230 Patrick Lane

Waukesha, WI 53188

262 - 650 - 0376