[357] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
what does/doesn't belong
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (rebecca@MIT.EDU)
Fri Feb 3 18:15:29 1995
From: rebecca@MIT.EDU
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 1995 18:13:38 EST
I generally think that discussion of vegetarianism cannot be
firmly seperated from the surrounding political issues. However, the
posting of a quote from a science journal about the killing
of the monkeys, was, i thought, taking it too far. I mean, many
issues are related to vegetraisnism, but merely posting
a quote about another issue, without any content which discusses
its relation to veggie issues is ridiculous.
No one eats lab mokeys, and their deaths are not because of meat-eating.
Discussing mistreatment of farm cows would be more relevant, but the
monkey stuff seems clearly off-topic. Another point about this post,
I sympathize with your horror, but lets not pretend that this
quote is shocking or unusual. We all know that lab animals
are killed when they are no longer useful to the experimenter. Even
if this were an animal-rights list, (which it is not), merely
posting a quote about this well-known fact does not serve
to enlighten anyone, or further the cause.
Now, I did say that I do think politics are intertwined
with vegetarianism, and there are some things that I think warrant
our attention, some more global & some more local. On the global
level, meat production is intertwined with the seizing of resources
by industrialized countries from less-industrialized ones. The land that
is used in south america in beef production for north america is
eradicating small, local-production farms there, and
furthering starvation and poverty. I think making the human-rights
connection with vegetarianism is important, both because
i think human rights are important, but also because i think
it will help further pro-veggie attitudes.
Now, for another example, closer to home. MIT is in the middle of making
plans to demolish Senior House & possibly East Campus, and
rebuild them as graduate student dorms and/or labs. SH and EC contain
a disproportionate number of vegetarians. They also have more substantiasl
kitchens than most undergrad dorms, and setups and social norms which promote
cooking groups, etc. It is very hard to be veggie when living in
a dorm in which it is almost impossible to cook. I do think
the effort to save SH & EC is worthy of the attention of vegetarians.
-Rebecca
