From LINDSAY GAMSA-JACKSON
How ‘idyllic’ is the life of the typical male lamb, when a tight rubber
band applied by the farmer to its scrotum causes its testicles to drop off
from gangrene? As a farmer, Jennifer Rees (‘Let them eat meat’, Forum, 19
May) should be better informed (even if she has not heard of the Australian
practice of flaying a sheep’s rump without anaesthetic to avoid fly-strike).
Certainly, hill-farming will become uneconomic as mutton consumption
drops, but conifers would be only one option. With the large areas available,
there should be ample room for both broad-leaved woods for recreation, and
conifers for fuel or wood. Why suppose a switch from mutton to white meat?
The abandonment of red meat (initially for health reasons) is only the beginning!
A significant shift to real vegetarianism would instead mean a reduction
in the consumption of all meat, freeing land devoted to growing animal feeds
to be used for less intensive agriculture. More hedges could be planted,
imports of animal feed and fertiliser would drop, fewer pesticides need
be used, and world grain prices would fall. These developments would benefit
the balance of payments, the environment, the Western consumer, and perhaps
even people in the Third World.
Lindsay Gamsa-Jackson Chelmsford Essex
