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Otter expires Aprit 27; “90: _ losed Sundays & Holidays ECONO SPOTS You.can save up to 80% on the cost of this ad! 365-5210 Virtues of meatless lifestyle extolled By MIA STAINSBY Vancouver Sun VANCOUVER (CP) — She’s gasping. She's Planet Earth is down for the count. Condition: “Nutri/System taught me how to eat and helped me lose 80 Ibs.” “with the ald of Nutri/System counselors, | learned about nutrition and how eatin the right foods could help me stay healthy. ‘Our lient 1 li Vickie Taylor lost 80 Ibs. critical. North America has arrived at the emergency ward only to be told we have 10 years to stabilize the health of this billion-year-old planet. Thousands are trying to help, yet rainforests are being bulldozed and the ozone eaten away. Our air, water and soil are being poisoned and garbage grows like a can- cer. Enter the eco-vegetarians — new troops:in the en- i Their janism is good for the environment, our health and the sanctity of animals, which would otherwise be raised in deplorable factory conditions. Lacto-Vegetarians (eat dairy products), ovo- vegetarians (eat eggs) and vegans (eat only plants), once dismissed as evangelical eaters, are evolving into en- vironmentalists. The man who has pumped environmental iron into the vegetarian lifestyle is John Robbins, author of the 1987 book, Diet for a New America (Stillpoint, $19.50), which-was- nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. Robbins, president of EarthSave, a Santa Cruz-based organization promoting ‘‘sound food choices,’’ says he has received about 10,000 letters of support: MEAT-ADDICTED “Our meat-addicted diet has everything to do with global warming and rainforests being destroyed. It takes 40 times more fossil fuels to produce one pound of protein from feed-lot beef than from wheat,” says Rob- bins. “Americans eat 220 million pounds of Central American rainforest beef every year.’’ It takes 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms) of grain and soybeans to produce one pound (2.2 kilograms) of feedlot beef, he says, pointing out the resource inefficiency. Fur- ther; it takes five pounds (11 kilograms) of protein feg to chickens to produce one pound of chicken flesh and 7.5 pounds (3.3 kilograms) for one pound of hog flesh. Meat production is responsible for the loss of forests to range land and loss of top soil to grazing cattle. The meat industry_uses-disproportionate amounts of water and other resourcegshe says. ibiotics and other chemicals and drugs end_up in foods derived from animals, he says. Eco-eating, however, has its detractors. Conrad L’Ecuyer, director of the commodity co- inati i of Agri ¢ Canada says: ‘‘To me the whole damn thing is biased and therefore, a little dangerous.”” L’Ecuyer says much of the forage lands in Canada _are not fit for producing grain and that, in fact, keeping it grassed keeps the topsoil intact. Dr. Michael Klaper, co-founder and scientific direc- tor of EarthSave, argues that if range lands can’t produce grain, they aren’t fit for cattle, either. ‘‘If you can get I'm announcing our most UNORTHODOX, S-A-L-E enough grass for cows to eat, you can get oats or barley because they are almost grasses. CATTLE ERODE LAND Cattle, he argues, are the number one cause of erosion on these lands. ‘They tear up the land and erode delicate streambeds — they’re very destructive."’ L’Ecuyer says the conversion rates from grain to meat are “seriously inaccurate. It depends-on how you calculate and at what stage." Klaper say the 16-to-one conversion rate of grain to continued on page C3 Robbin’s facts and figures on vegetarianism By MIA STAINSBY Vancouver Sun VANCOUVER (CP) — Vegetarians are turning a deeper shade of green. John Robbins, president of EarthSave, has much to do with that transformation. His three years of research for his book, Diet fora New America, yielded an environmentalist’s cor- nucopia, shedding light on the environmental impact of mean, dairy and egg production. His research builds a~stron§ case for eco- vegetarianism. e = These are some of Robbins’s vegetarian nuggets, based on research in the U.S. and calculated in U.S. units of measures: — Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed one person on a meat-based diet: 20. = Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on one acre of land: 20,000; pounds of beef that can be produced on one acre of land: 165. — Number of people who will starve to death every year: 60,000; number of people who could be fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their meat in- take by 10 per ceny: 60 million. —. Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly associated with livestock raising: 85. — Number of acres of U.S. fogggts that have been Cleared to create cropland to support a meat-centred diet: 260,000,000. — A driving force behind the destruction of tropical rainforests: The American meat habit. — Current rate of species extinction from destruc- tion of tropical rainforests and related habitats: 1,000 per year. continued on page C3 Entertainment Vegetarianism continued from C2 livestock beef is based on edible flesh; lower government ratios are based on total carcass weight. Robbins surveyed British and American medical journals-and. found that diets including meat, dairy and eggs can contribute to the following diseases: strokes, cer- vical cancer, prostate cancer, kidney stones, diabetes, peptic ulcers, hiatal hernia, gallstones, heart disease, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, 1 ‘i Robbins says North Americans have long been eating excessive amounts of protein — on U.S. and Canadian food guides, two of four food groups are animals or animal products. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board, and the U.S. National Research Council recom- mendations for protein range from 2.5 per cent to 8 per cent of daily calories, says Robbins. salmonellosis, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, kidney disease, hemorrhoids, obesity, asthma and trichinosis. Twenty years ago, Robbins, 43, was the heir- apparent to-the Baskin Robbins ice cream chain. He said no thanks. “The environment was going to waste. I didn’t think that adding a 32nd flavor of ice cream would be an adequate response,"’ he told an audience of 1,100 during a recent visit to Vancouver. ‘Animals in the meat industry, he says, ‘‘are treated with the same assembly-line respect as pencils — they’re ground out.”* . Klaper, who was a physician_in Surrey and Van- couver during the 1970s, says: “I don’t eat anything: can run away from me or have sex. There’s absolutely no reason to eat meat. “We're not like mountain lions. We don’t have big teeth and big mouths and claws for tearing flesh."” Meat-eatirig animal have short intestines with strong stomach acids; humans, he says, have long intestines with weak acids, Thus meat can ferment as it passed through the human body, contributing to diseases. Robbins says recent scientific research shows that animal protein is not superior to plant protein as far as human diet is concerned. “That information was based on research done in the 1920s-and-30s — the amino acid patterns in meat were found to be superior for rates — but not for human beings. Recent studies show that-people-do fine-on_plant protein.” The need to combine different proteins to make a “complete” protein is another misconception, he says. It arose from research that assumed the egg was the perfect protein — for-rats: A ding to a U.S. depa of agri table, more than 40 per cent of calories in spinach, broccoli and cauliflower are from protein. A variety of vegetables, grains, fruits, nuts and seeds more than fulfil protein i says Robbins. Facts continued from C2 — Pounds of soybeans ,roduced by the amount of fossil fuel needed to produce one pound of feedlot beef! 40. ———— = of total raw i in Paper continued from page C1 But even if Canadian producers catch up,’ why would U.S. publishers go north when the biggest supply of wasie paper is close to home? “They'll buy newsprint the way CASTLEGAR SAVINGS CREDIT UNION YOUR COMMUNITY FINANCIAL CENTRE FOR OVER 40 YEARS! CASTLEGAR SLOCAN PARK 601. 18th St,, 365-7292 Huy. 6 © 226-7202 they've always bought ney — if the quality is right,’ the ser- vice is good and prices are right,”” McClay contends. “If it contains recycled newsprint, even better.’’ The Canadian forest, however, “certainly will not be as impor- tant. Neither will Canada’s advan- tage in affordable energy, he ad- ded, because making recycled paper requires only one-fifth the energy of newsprint from wood. But Canada, unlike some parts ‘of the United States, at least has Michael’s Nuggets STARTER HOMES — Anicely finished 2 bedroom home on large, fenced lot in Robson, $36,000. — A cute 2 bedroom home in N. Castlegar, $29,900. — Aone bdrm, cottage on 60'x112' lot in Rob- son, $29,500. = Need @ root over your head? $24,900. N. Castlegar: INKING OF BUI _ THINKING. OF BUILDINGS. — A115'x150' view lot on exclusive 12th Ave. $. $29,500. — Two 60'x127' lots in newer area of N. water for its mills. the U.S. to produce the current meat-centred diet: 33. —F of total raw i in the U.S. needed to produce fully vegetarian diet: two. — Cost for pound of protein from wheat: $1.50; cost for pound of protein from beefsteak if U.S. government stopped subsidizing the meat industry’s use of water: $89. — User of more than half of all water used in the U. livestock production. — Pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by meat and dairy products: 55 per cent and 23 per cent. — Pesticide residues in U.S. diet supplied by vegetables, fruits and grains: six per cent, four per cent and one per cent. — Wingspan of average Leghorn chicken: 26 in- ches; space average leghorn given in egg factories: six inches. — Number of pigs confined to size of a twin bed in a typical factor farm: three. Laws requiring newspapers to use more recycled paper or taxing those that don’t are in effect in three states and undér con- sideration in a dozen others. MICHAEL KEREIFF 365-7825 7,900 — — Over 4 cleared acres in Poss Creék just past the school, $29,900. E