Meat eating OK

In rebuttal to Tracy Wood’s October 2nd letter to the editor about vegetarians, it seems it has become mandatory to analyze the approach and search for the point. First let me issue some disclaimers:

1) Yes, red meat has been linked with heart disease and cancer when taken in immoderate quantities.

2) Yes, cows, pigs and chickens by the millions are slaughtered annually to feed the world.

3) Ultimately, yes we should watch what our intake of red meat is.

These points would lead me to agree with Ms. Wood’s letter. Unfortunately, she loses validity and charisma by drawing such sick literary caricatures by assigning one who eats meat as a murderer and cannibal with blood dripping from one’s mouth. State what you are against and why and do it in a tone that would be understandable to adults who read The Northern Star.

Unfortunately, the phrasing of the points is done to an extreme and if I were to utilize this format is would therefore be fair for me to state that farmers would go broke if they didn’t also have livestock besides their grain.

So Tracy Woods, I don’t know you or any vegetarians that share your extreme attitude against meat-eaters, but the next time you go long durations without meat, think of a human being – a farmer and cattle rancher, starving in an unemployment line because the trade he has practiced and has refined through several generations can no longer pay the mortgage or feed his family.

Is the fair parallel to the argument for us to “think about where our next meal came from, or better yet who it was.”

What I eat is not a who and I refrain from anthropomorphisizing cows. I ask how would you dispose of a mouse in your home? Do you think about the life it once was? Where does one draw the line?

Meat-eaters I believe would welcome issues but not attacks.

Todd Obmascik

Graduate Student

Business