Meat Madness
Earlier this week, the prestigious Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concluded that factory farming takes a big toll on human health and the environment, undermines rural economic stability, and fails to provide humane treatment of livestock. Capping a two-year study with agriculture industry participation, the report calls for a national phase-out of all intensive confinement of farmed animals.
The report is long overdue. For the past 60 years, animal agriculture has been devastating our country's vital natural resources, including soil, waters, and wildlife habitats. It has been generating more greenhouse gases than transportation. It has been elevating the risk of chronic diseases that account for 130 million deaths annually. It has been abusing billions of innocent, sentient animals.
The only long-term solution to this tragedy is to gradually reduce the consumption of animal products to zero. Help is available at tryveg.org and chooseveg.org.
Eli Ingleson
Easthampton
Deval Disappoints
When Governor Patrick campaigned for office, I saw him from afar. Hearing he would be at Bart's Cafe in downtown Greenfield on April 25th, I wanted to see him up close. At noon, a group of us stood on the sidewalk patiently waiting and chatting. A Greenfield town official told us we needed a permit to carry a political sign on a public way.
As Deval approached, many people stepped forward, asking for autographs. I wanted one, too, and just had my poster, "Green by 2015—Shut Vermont Yankee Now" to write on. I pulled out a pen and asked him for an autograph.
Looking at the poster, he said, "What am I signing?" He paused, read the poster, looked at me and said, "I can't have an opinion about everything," and handed back my pen without signing the poster.
I had been excited about seeing Deval, but in that moment, I was disappointed. I expect elected officials to have an opinion about issues that impact the health and safety of their constituents.
Fifteen Massachusetts towns in the 20-mile radius of Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee will vote at town meeting this spring, expressing our opinion about the health and safety of our communities. We will bring these passed resolutions to Deval Patrick.
I hope we are not disappointed again.
Claire Chang
Gill
