>John Robbins has written at least two books. The one I have finished reading is
>"May All Be Fed". His premise is not that meat production is destabilizing
>Rural American communities but that it is causing famine in South America and
>Africa as more and more arable land is taken out of the production of food
>staples and planted to feed grade soy beans and other grains which are then
>exported primarily to the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. And yes, the import
>of these commodities is a direct result of the feed lot system but also of the
>amount of meat we see fit to raise... (major snip) large scale meat production
in the U.S. >etc, is directly responsible for much of the famine and hunger that
exists today.
Pat:
Mark Twain once said: "Dont disturb my logic with facts!"
The USA indeed consumes the most soymeal of any country, but it also produces
the most. In fact, the USA exports 6-8 million tons per year of soymeal used as
protein supplement in livestock feeds. Canada is also a net exporter of protein
meals (peas, canola meal & flaxmeal), albeit a smaller one. Europe does buy some
protein meal- their ag policy is very complicated_ suffice to say that it pays
EU farmers better to grow surplus cereals which are then dumped on world grain
markets, rather than to grow oilseeds. They have their own logic & I'm sure it
makes some sense to them...
"Other grains" I assume to be coarse grains or feed grains such as corn, barley,
oats, sorghum primarily fed to animals. The US imports (10 year avg) about 2.5
million tons of combined coarse grains, but exports about 55 million tons! USA &
Canada sell about 65% of all the feed grains sold in the world market- most of
the rest is from Australia, China, Europe & Argentina so you could argue that
starving Africans are not filling feedlots in USA & Canada! Japan buys most of
its food offshore, so I'm not surprised that they buy about 30% of the world
trade in feed grain & a large portion of the protein meal sold in Asia. However,
the Japanese are not big meat eaters, so starving Africans are not filling
Japanese feedlots either...
If someone wants a reference for the stats, I can supply it. I guess I have a
problem with the guy saying that people are starving somewhere; feed grains are
being grown in starving countries & shipped to rich countries & meat eating is
the cause of starvation. People may be starving in Africa or S America, but I
think its because they either don't have jobs so they can't pay for commercial
food, or don't have access to land to be able to produce their own food. Or,
more insidiously, they live in a country like Sudan, where a ruling minority
group with more guns has decided to exterminate the indigenous people by using
access to food as a weapon... (Where are the B-52's when we need them?)
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