Vegetarian Advocate: A New York Ban on Meat Consumption in the Workplace [Hidden Agenda Warning]

SATYA Magazine ^ | May 2003 | Jack Rosenberger

[mvpel]

Vegetarian Advocate: A New York Ban on Meat Consumption in the Workplace
By Jack Rosenberger

What are the odds that New York will ban meat consumption in restaurants, bars and workplaces within the next 25 years? None, right?

Maybe not. Twenty-five years ago the idea that New York would ban smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces was laughable. (In fact, one legislator's response to the legislator who proposed the statewide ban back then, well, was to blow smoke in his face.) Yet, earlier this year New York passed a strict ban on smoking in nearly every restaurant, bar and workplace in the state. With this legislation, New York becomes the third state in the nation -- after California and Delaware -- to pass legislation banning smoking in such venues.

Governor George Pataki signed the bill because "he believes a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace will lead to a healthier New York and reduce the cost of healthcare," says Lisa Dewald Stoll, his press secretary. Would a statewide ban on meat consumption in the workplace also improve the health of New Yorkers and reduce health costs?

Of course, one of the chief reasons New York enacted the statewide ban is due to the health dangers of secondhand smoke. Meat consumption is different in this respect, but it has significant environmental dangers that cigarettes don't, such as large-scale pollution of air and water, greater use of energy, water and other natural resources, and so on. As eating meat is increasingly recognized as an environmentally devastating act, its appeal will continue to erode.

Meanwhile, it's up to vegetarians like you and me to, as animal activist Henry Spira liked to say, push the peanut forward. We need to educate family, friends, and enemies about the health disadvantages of carnivorism (Did somebody say heart disease? Cancer? Obesity?) and the advantages of vegetarianism. Today, a statewide ban on meat consumption seems like an impossible dream, but what we are trying to achieve is something that could happen in a distant tomorrow.

If you believe in great dreams, if you believe your life has a noble purpose, pick up a copy of Peter Singer's biography of Henry Spira, Ethics Into Action (Rowman & Littlefield), and revel in what Henry accomplished for the animals during his lifetime. With a lot of hard work and a little luck, you can do the same.

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© STEALTH TECHNOLOGIES INC. 1993-2003

[mvpel]

It is important to be aware of the efforts of vegetarian activists and what they are plotting to force on the rest of us. I suspect that the discussion of a ban on hallal and kosher slaughter is a wedge issue that they are attempting to use to "push the peanut forward," in much the same way that the gun-banners did with so-called "assault weapons."

It is unfortunate that Gov. Pataki gave them the ammunition they needed to make a consistent case for a ban on meat-eating in the state - that just goes to show you what happens when government overreaches its constitutional limits.

Also note that this author makes reference to Peter Singer, the infamous proponent of infanticide of disabled newborns, and states that "the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee."

These are the kind of people who want to weild government force against you and your family. Think about it.

[boris]

Let's all become cannibals and eat Vegans.

--Boris

[Da_Shrimp]

about the health disadvantages of carnivorism

Why oh why do these veggie fundies keep on referring to the rest of us normal folk as 'carnivores'? I love meat, but an average meal consists of at least an equal amount of vegetable matter.

Are these weirdos so ili-educated that they don't know what 'omnivore' means?

[DannyTN]

"It is important to be aware of the efforts of vegetarian activists and what they are plotting to force on the rest of us"

Fortunately, this is a much harder battle. Second hand smoke has long been an annoyance to those of us who didn't smoke. And in many buildings the level of smoke in the air truly was a health hazard.

There is no such concern as "second hand meat". There is not even a health issue, since people who don't eat red meat tend to become anemic unless they take supplements. And vegetarians die younger than meat eaters.

Therefore they will have to win their battle either along idealogical lines, which I don't see happening. Except for the warning in scripture that in the last days men will say not to eat meat.

Or they will have to pitch an economic argument such as a cow only feeds 1 person, but 20 people could eat the grain that the cow consumes. Therefore it's obscene to eat meat when other people can only afford to eat grain. Or some nonesense like that.

[4mycountry]

This will NEVER happen in Texas. If they so much as TRY to ban meat here, we'll kill 'em.

[ElectricRook]

they will have to win their battle either along idealogical lines, which I don't see happening.

Of course not, they don't have facts on their side... They will run the emotional campaign. History shows it works.

[ex-Texan]

Frankly speaking -- I bet in 5 years U.S. cattle herds will be infected with mad cow. If they aren't already. Canada was claiming last week that the mad cow disease they discovered in Alberta came from the U.S. There are rumors of mad cow type illnesses decimating wild deer and elk herds. These herds cross borders and mix with cattle and graze along side in some areas. There are rumors also the prions can be spread by milk.As for me, I still eat meat. But it pays to be aware of what is going on in the background.

[mvpel]

Fortunately, this is a much harder battle. Second hand smoke has long been an annoyance to those of us who didn't smoke. And in many buildings the level of smoke in the air truly was a health hazard.

So the force of government coercion was applied to smokers because people couldn't be bothered to install adequate ventilation. Terrific.

All they have to do is make a compelling case against the impact of slaughterhouses and ranches on the environment and the health of those nearby, as they have been working hard on doing for pig farms and their effluent ponds, and voila, there's a second-hand meat case.

They argue that between heart disease, cholesterol, etc, that eating meat isn't healthy when compared to a vegetarian diet, which may be true.

Banning of smoking, and efforts to tax it out of existence, were considered nonsense 25 years ago. I don't think it's a wise idea to write these people off as nuts.

This sort of creeping fascism was why the Constitution specifically enumerated limited powers to the federal government.

[tet68]

Actually we are omnivores.

[tet68]

And in the animal kingdom, vegetarians are mostly known as,

PREY.

[Da_Shrimp]

Actually we are omnivores.

My point exactly.

[randog]

As strange as this sounds, I hope these people are able to push their morals/agenda forward and make at least some headway. Many average, ordinary, non-political sheep simply passively stood by, ignored, or cheered the anti-smoking fanatics as they sued tobacco companies (and won), outlawed smoking in public places then private businesses, and IMO will eventually have it banned in private households (for the children, don't you know). Many people didn't care because the rights of "other people" (nasty, dirty people) were being infringed upon, not theirs.

The food Nazi's, however, will affect everyone, and this should wake some people up to the fact that government is more than willing to allow tyranny of the minority.

[SandRat]

What are the odds that New York will ban meat consumption in restaurants, bars and workplaces within the next 25 years?

Does not matter to me what the VEGGIE Kooks push through I'll still eat meat.

Hey all you VEGGIES, let me introduce myself; I'm Hannibal Lectors Cousin!

[freekitty]

This proposal is as looney as the Brits giving the transvestites the right to marry. Now there's a question begging to be answered.

Why would transvestites want to marry? They can't even figure out what gender they want to be.

[fporretto]

Vegetarians eat vegetables, right? Well, I'm a humanitarian.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

[DAnconia55]

Hmmm..

And this differs from Fundies trying to ban gay sex how?

[Tall_Texan]

"Vegetarian" is an old Indian word that means "lousy hunter".

[mvpel]

Not one whit.

If you do a search on my posts, you'll see that I was one of the supporters of the Lawrence decision.

[Finny]

Or they will have to pitch an economic argument such as a cow only feeds 1 person, but 20 people could eat the grain that the cow consumes. Therefore it's obscene to eat meat when other people can only afford to eat grain. Or some nonesense like that.

Vegans often use this argument, and it's entirely facetious. I ask them: Have you ever eaten feed-corn? Of all the wheat grown in California, wheat from only two very small microclimate regions has enough protein in it to be accepted by bakers; the rest of the grain, barley, wheat, etc., grown in here is too low in protein, and is fit only for stock consumpion.

In other words, the grain fed to livestock is not even close in quality to the grain eaten by humans! Hey, vegans -- there's a reason Ruminantia like cattle, deer, buffalo, goats, llamas, and other cud-chewing animals have four chambers in their stomachs!!! Those animals can eat and process stuf that we can't!!

*sigh* Vegetarians, especially vegans, are idiots, if often likeable idiots, every one of them. I have a lot of friends who are vegetarians, and I must say, they go down in my estimation when I learn they're vegetarians. I lose real respect for them. I ask them, don't they feel guilty for all the little critters they've killed directly and indirectly, by their advocacy of crop farming, which not only wipes out thousands of acres of land where formerly lived cute little foxes, birds, snakes, lizards, squirrels, deer, coyotes, bobcats, etc. etc. and replaces them with rows of crops, BUT which also diverts water from ecosystems in order to irrigate? I.E., how many animals died for that plate of broccoli?

Nor do they know what to say when I point out that vegan mammals such as manatees and deer and even horses have small brains for their body sizes, wherease omnivores and carnivores have much larger brain cases in proportion to their bodies. Why? Because protein is what builds brain tissue in any mammal foetus.

Vegans and vegatarians are harbingers of a New-Age Dark Age!