Can a personal food system be vegetarian-based? As a vegetararian, I believe that the answer is yes and that when people get a close look at the system that gives us beef they will begin to understand the need for a fundamental shift in where our food comes from.
What goes on, on the killing floor is not the only problem. While it ought to present us with serious ethical issues that need frank and open public discussion. Factory Farming also raises moral and ethical issues that we should discuss before buying another bit of pig, chicken or cow. When we discuss the how of the food delivery system we focus on process and how the animals are treated rather than simply the end result, that slice of lamb or calf that sits alongside our potatoes and beans at dinner time. The next time you order a hamburger, at your favourite fast food joint, picture how the cows were kept at the factory farm were they were processed before being lead to the killing floor.
There are also environmental and human health concerns that we need to discuss. The presence of the e.coli bacteria in the drinking water of Walkerton Ontario has raised questions about water safety being compromised by the presence of factory farms in the area. Heavy rains in the region causes the huge amounts of manure the factory raised animals produce to run off into the local water system.
We, not only, misuse the food supply system on the land but at sea and on inland lakes and rivers as well. stm"> Overfishing continues to deplete world fish stock, yet rather than seeking another, perhaps sustainable, food source, man continues to fish. You'd think we'd begin to consider another way . Next week we will take a closer look at the carbohydrate economy and the food system.
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