CARMEL COURTNEY,
Madam, - In view of the increase in the number of BSE cases each year and other controversies concerning the production of meat, maybe this would be a good time for consumers to express their concern by becoming vegetarians.
Studies show that vegetarians enjoy better health, spend less time in hospital and live longer than their meat-eating counterparts. Vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts can provide delicious and nutricious meals.
In addition to the benefits for human health the suffering of animals would be alleviated if demand were lower and there was less pressure to produce at an ever-increasing rate. Nowadays, with intensive factory farming methods many animals spend their entire miserable lives confined in small spaces without access to light or fresh air, before being crammed into trucks and driven to a bloody and barbaric death so that humans can gorge themselves to excess and perhaps die at an early age from heart attacks, cancer and/or obesity.
Are the "pleasures" of greasy rashers and bloody steak really worth that? - Yours, etc.,
CARMEL COURTNEY, Sandyford Road, Dublin 16.