I think the argument for pasture-fed ruminates has already been won in the biological farming movement. I do not think that anyone in this movement who has been paying attention thinks that it is ok to feed by-products (proteins) or grains, for that matter, to grazing animals.
I agree that we live in a self-made cesspool, a world we've thrown out of balance. (Anyone sense that the recent earthquakes were brought on by the big bombs the US dropped in IRAQ?) We also know that it is a problem that is not going to be readily solved because there is so little agreement about its sources or solutions.
The mad cow situation, however, presents not so much a threat to human health as it does to the future of farming, with governments given martial law-type powers to destroy herds. Purdey's research reveals that there is no need to destroy these herds and that the origins of mad cow (what do we need to say? the ACUTE origins of Mad Cow Disease...) are in inappropriate government policies (too much insecticide applied to already imbalanced herds) I'm not too optimistic that there is anything we can do about what the governments are doing in response to Mad Cow, primarily because none of us are clear on what their true motivations are. What I think is clear is that even through everything is broken, Mad Cow represents a particularly disconcerting disruption of 'health as usual' and I, for one, feel much more comfortable with Purdey's explanation than I do with the 'official' one.
As for quoting Steiner, well, he also said that farms might taste better with peppers on them, didn't he? What was he getting at??
-Allan _______________________________________________ BDNow mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can unsubscribe or change your options at: http://lists.envirolink.org/mailman/listinfo/bdnow
