Editor:
The excellent editorial by Adam Kirk (“Fasting helps one understand others,” Sept. 27) neglected to mention an important way we can all personally help end world hunger: eat plants.
Raising animals for food uses far more resources than growing vegetables, grain or beans. For example, a cow grazing on one acre of land produces enough meat to sustain a person for only two-and-a-half months, whereas soybeans grown on that same acre would nourish a person for seven years!
U.S. livestock alone consume about one-third of the world’s total grain harvest, as well as more than 70 percent of the grain grown in the United States. What this means is that we can produce more food for people to eat if we consume plant foods directly — not indirectly by eating animals that have been fed the grains and other crops.
Whether you are a world-hunger activist, an environmentalist who wants to decrease your ecological footprint, an athlete who wants more strength and energy, a dieter looking to decrease body fat or someone who does not want to participate in the torture and mutilation of animals, a vegetarian diet is for you. Learn more about vegetarianism — and how to get free stuff such as stickers and videos — at peta2.com.
Curtis Taylor University of Oregon