John McAllister wrote:
At the risk of becoming a stirrer Ricki Coughlin's posting about becoming a
vegan was very noble I'm sure, but it tends to oversimplify the problem
somewhat.
I don't know about Aus, but in South Africa many rare an highly threatened
grassland bird (and other taxa as well) are in trouble because their habitat
has been irreversibly transformed by CROP farmers. Around Wakkerstroom they
survive fairly well in conjunction with sheep and cattle ranchers, many of
whom go out of their way to help with the conservation of the species -
Rudd's Lark, Botha's Lark, Yellow-breasted Pipit, Blue Korhaan, Denham's
Bustard and Blue Crane to name just a few. Many of these ranchers are very
proud of having these species on their farms or ranches.
Finally let me state that I am not a farmer or rancher - I am a Bird Guide -
oops I hope I'm allowed to say that :-)
Cheers
John McAllister
Wakkerstroom
South Africa.
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
The issues are more complex. Even considering that large amounts of
grain are fed to livestock. This is a wasteful practice, but it is
still true that crops for human consumption transform landscapes and
where that happens, there is a loss of biodiversity. I come from the
Canadian prairies, where a substantial proportion of crops produced are
for human consumption. Looking at these monocultures, I have to
conclude that raising grazing animals for food on these lands would be
less destructive than cropping. Note that I said /less /destructive, as
opposed to not destructive.
The arguements against meat consumption on moral grounds should not be
confused with arguements about sustainability. There are cases where
meat consumption makes ecological sense, though we might still disagree
with this from a moral perspective.
Scott O'Keeffe
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
