The New Population Bomb

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 MEN: MOTHER readers have always contrasted sharply on that issue. Editorially, we hold that animals raised by owners for their own food are a part of homesteading ...but more precisely are simply a matter of personal choice. Suggesting that you cannot be an environmentalist without adhering to vegetarianism is an eyebrow raiser.

Tobias: Well, it won't raise everybody's. There are 12 to 15 percent of Americans who are vegetarians. That's 25 million people.

MEN: Why are you drawing such a line in the sand?

 Tobias: Well, need for water resources, which go into growing alfalfa and other feed stores for cattle, is the predominant use of fresh water in this country. As a result we are seeing a shrinking of aquifers, rivers, and water levels throughout the country where ranching is going on to support the cattle industry. That, in turn, is causing drought and is destroying short and high grasses, which support vast ecosystems in the same way the coral reefs support vast ecosystems. The prairie dog, the raptors, the antelopes, all the creatures that browse on those areas are disappearing because the cattle industry is having a demonstrable impact on that ecosystem within the United States. That's one reason. A second reason is globally: the cattle industry is having a disastrous impact on tropical rain forest areas, which are being sheered in order to provide open grazing ground for cattle. When that happens, you're losing a key ingredient in the planetary recycling system of oxygen and carbon dioxide that is essential to all living beings. Third, is that predatory behavior of human beings on our fellow species, behavior simply referred to as "agribusiness products." The more than 8 billion chickens a year in this country alone, who are basically tortured and slaughtered under unimaginably cruel, unregulated, unmonitored circumstances, is such a blight on civilization, so-called, that when one begins to learn about it, it changes you forever.

 MEN: Point taken, but other solutions?

 Tobias: Well, simply be true to and consistent with your own beliefs ...and hopefully, ultimately by helping animals, by helping your local shelters, by taking in stray animals, by using every opportunity everyday to extend the olive branch, to extend your heart and your capabilities of nuturance to other life forms. You may think that people are looking over your shoulder and pointing their finger at you and saying, "Look at that foolish, sentimental guy." But in fact, that was Albert Schweitzer's calling card: to be foolish and sentimental with respect to other life forms. To leave a legacy of love and empathy for kids who are looking up at you, for your peers who are looking over at you, for your parents who are looking back at you.

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