Sheldon wrote:

>
> > I wonder how they would ever have survived in the 19th century,
> before the days
> > of mechanized tractors. Farmers generally used horses or oxen to work
> their
> > fields. They used them to pull plows, the haul wagons, to operate
> various types
> > of farm equipment. The entire agricultural system replied almost
> entirely on the
> > exploitation of animals.
>
> Most of the world still exploits animals for farming, the human
> animal.... besides all the world's rice paddys lookit all those illegal
> beaners pickin' veggies... even if they ain't quite human they are
> indeed animals.

They may consider human exploitation on another level. From my experience,
people who are overly concerned with animal welfare usually don't care
about humans. Animals are still used in most forms of agricultural, and
the more "organic" the farming the more we use animals. I wonder if most
people realize how important bees are to agriculture. Most orchard owners
around here either own their own bees or pay a local apiary to bring hives
in to their orchards because are fundamental to flower fertilization, and
having active bee hives close to an orchard increases productivity by as
much as 50%. Worms are another animal vital to our agriculture. As they
burrow through the ground they leave castings (worm shit) full of useful
fertilizer, and their tunnels help with aeration and drainage of the soil.
Organic farmers use bug warfare to protect their gardens from pests. They
will use certain types of insects in their gardens in order to keep the
food free of others.

It is bad enough that these poor misguided vegans are denying themselves
some of the basic foods of the human diet, but they are being duped into
buying "organic" foods which exploit more animals than the large,
chemically assisted, commercial operations.





>
>
> Anyways, there ain't any such thing as a vegetarian/vegan, every last
> one of them
> cheats regularly.
>
> Sheldon