As a matter of fact, I am a locavore who did go out to visit a local beef farm before buying meat from them (And the same with a poultry farm in the area). I got lucky enough to live within twenty miles of a half dozen farms that offer vegetables, fruits, meat, poultry and eggs, so I do buy locally when possible.

Eating locally will not solve all the problems with modern food production, but once you’ve shaken hands with the people who produce the food, you get a better idea of what is going on and can be more comfortable with the whole process.

Not everyone can eat locally, I know. Most of my girlfriend’s family lives in Houston, with little access to local produce or meat. There are still a number of ways to follow the locavore mindset (or at least a path of less dependance on coporate farms). Her mother took one approach and became vegan, her father decided not to and continues to hunt and eat game, but not beef or chicken from feed lots.

So many people tout the advantages of veganism as a way of life, whether others want to hear it or not. It is not ‘cruel’ to eat meat, it is how our bodies work. I hunt, eat local meat, and dairy products from dairies I have either been to or trust. I also believe that animals raised or hunted for food should be respected, treated with reverence, and consumed properly.

Just because someone decides not to cut meat or animal products completely from their diet does not mean they support the inhumane, unsanitary, and downright insane practices of the modern food industries. There are alternatives. Yes veganism can be a good path to better health, personally and for our environment, but please get off the soapbox and see that most of the world can not or will not stop eating animals.

I have to say, however, while I agree with you that the animals in zoos should be allowed to live free in the wild, with the way that people from around the world are destroying habitat, the only place safe for tigers may be zoos. (BTW–most zoo animals were born in captivity, and lots of zoos have breeding programs where they breed animals in captivity and release them into the wild. People don’t eat these animals.)

And with global warming and polar ice melting, the only place for polar bears to be safe may well be zoos. In fact, zoos may save these species from extinction.

The thought of a world without tigers and polar bears makes me want to weep–but there you are.

Every time you see the evil of humanity–such as in the video that fomented this beef recall, you see other humans doing their best to save animals–from other humans, from extinction, from global warming.

And yes, I agree with Karyn. There are very few vegans in India. There are plenty of vegetarians, but dairy products are widely used in Indian cuisine, both in the north and the south.

For indigenous vegan cuisines, you need to look to the Buddhists in China and Japan. The foods of the monasteries in those countries is vegan, in large part, because dairy foods were seldom seen in these countries. (There are exceptions. Some tribespeople in China eat dairy products, and in Mongolia and Tibet, which are now claimed by China, there is a tradition of using yak’s milk and butter in their food.)

Please people ,donot enjoy poor animals which are in captivation at Zoos. They are born free and are supposed to live free.

Animals have equal rights just as we do.