Before We Leap

Regarding Carolyn Raffensperger’s concern about having fresh leafy greens during winter in the north: There’s nothing wrong with wanting fresh leafy greens in wintertime, but you can get along fine without them. Native Americans survived northern winters for centuries without leafy greens. Freezing and canning are OK, but are dependent on electricity or gas or wood fuel. You could use a solar greenhouse.

With help, leeks will grow well into late fall, and some greens, like bok choy, will grow very late into the fall all by themselves. There are varieties of cabbage that will keep all winter in a cold cellar. Should you happen to live in town and not have a cold-storage cellar, you can probably find a cool place in an apartment or townhouse to keep a box of cabbages, carrots, and potatoes.

Our goal should be to live on food that can be grown locally and in season. “Seasonable rather than reasonable,” as Newt Tolman used to say.

I found Carolyn Raffensperger’s discussion of the benefits of eating local foods edifying and insightful, but I have one bone of contention with her.

Raffensperger mentions that she and her husband “ate our own beef.” Ethical issues aside, there is a heavy ecological price to pay for the practice of eating meat, beef in particular. Cattle eat fifteen pounds of grain for each pound of beef produced. It takes an average of 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of meat. Cattle also give off methane gas, contributing to the greenhouse effect, and require vast forest lands to be cleared for grazing. This is in addition to the pollution that beef cattle cause to adjacent waterways, and the general warfare between ranchers and predators who prey on cattle. To quote Raffensperger, “This is not a good system; it’s not sustainable on any level.”

I read with great interest Derrick Jensen’s interview with Carolyn Raffensperger on the precautionary principle [“Before We Leap,” November 2002]. Although I’d never put a name to it, this principle lies at the heart of my work for an organization dedicated to ending vivisection, or experimentation on animals.

When I tell people what I do, their first response is often “But shouldn’t we try to find cures for diseases?” As Raffensperger points out, the assumption that we need to choose between two terrible options — in this case, torturing animals or halting medical progress — is specious. If we have the ingenuity and resources to walk on the moon and fertilize human eggs in petri dishes, then we can surely find an alternative to animal research.

The truth is that, despite billions of taxpayer dollars spent, animal experimentation has not — and cannot — cure or prevent human diseases. But personal responsibility can. Heart disease, AIDS, and most types of cancer are preventable through environmental clean-up and healthy lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, we would rather continue our destructive habits — polluting our air and water, smoking, eating a diet filled with saturated fat and cholesterol, and not getting any exercise — while we wait for science to deliver a cure.

The scientific mindset that allows us to inflict suffering and pain on those who are most vulnerable and shrug it off as a “medical necessity” is as dangerous as it is unethical. As Raffensperger makes clear, we cannot wait passively for scientists to decide what is good for us. The time has come to rethink medicine and ground our science in ethics.