In article <dcef526a.0401090921.1ed2971d@posting.google.com>,
dmjoshi@lycos.co.uk (Romanise) posted:

I posted the following in 1996:

[ Subject: Bye-Bye Rain Forest (Sigh)
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ Date: June 15, 1996
[ Newsgroups:  soc.culture.indian, . . .

BYE-BYE RAIN FOREST (SIGH)

by Jai Maharaj

(Excerpts from a feature article)

  The largest democracy in the world, Bharat (or India,
as foreigners named it), occupies the largest part of
the south Asian subcontinent.

  When the country of nearly a billion people elected a
conservative and benevolent political party to form a
government last month, it was maneuvered out by a
leftist-communist alliance of opposition members.

  They installed a prime minister who seems to care only
about the profits of multinational corporations while
placing the health interests of people at jeopardy.

  Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda's cabinet has
announced through its agricultural minister that about
230 million acres of rain forest will be destroyed to
convert it into a state of "utilization."

  Gowda was the chief minister of the state of Karnataka
when he aided the invasion by foreign junk-food chains
such as Kentucky Fried Chicken to establish their
franchise in what is the free world's largest consumer
market.

  It has been shown that the flesh sold by such
establishments is laced with neurotoxins like MSG to
make it palatable as food.

  Multinational junk-food chains are a threat to any
country's agriculture and environment.  The destruction
of rain forests to clear land for the purpose of feeding
animals promotes one of the least efficient methods of
food production.

  Citing research conducted by the American Society of
Agricultural Engineers, wrote Pulitzer Prize-nominee
John Robbins in his book DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA:

  "Agricultural engineers at Ohio State University
compared the energy costs of producing poultry, pork an
other meats with the energy costs of producing soybeans,
corn and other plant foods.

  "They found that even the *least* efficient plant food
is nearly *ten times* as efficient as the *most* energy
efficient animal food.

  "Even the best of animal enterprises examined returns
only 34.5% of the investment of fossil energy to
us in food energy, whereas the poorest of the five
crop enterprises examined returns 328%."

  Oddly, the present effort to turn Bharat's green land
into desert is being sold by the government as a "green
revolution."

  Pradip Sethi <nonas@batelco.com.bh> summed up the
situation this way in a discussion on the Internet:

  "Devgoda (is that how is name is spelt?) will be a
disgrace to any Indian with an iota of intellect. . . .
He, at best, will turn out to be puppet with strings in
the hands of dacoits, crooks, ex-Maharajas,
industrialists and mafias. . . . God help India!"

  A reading list of valuable sources:

  Robbins, John DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA, Stillpoint,
1991.
  Caulfield, Catherine, "A Reporter at Large: The Rain
Forests," THE NEW YORKER, January 14, 1985.
  Parsons, James J., "The Scourge of Cows," WHOLE EARTH
REVIEW, Spring 1988.
  Rifkin, Jeremy, BIOSPHERE POLITICS: A NEW
CONSCIOUSNESS FOR A NEW CENTURY, Crown, New York, 1991.
  Rifkin, Jeremy, BEYOND BEEF: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
CATTLE CULTURE, Dutton, New York, 1992.

Jai Maharaj
Creator of newsgroups alt.jyotish, alt.language.hindi, alt.religion.hindu
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

In article <dcef526a.0401090921.1ed2971d@posting.google.com>,
dmjoshi@lycos.co.uk (Romanise) posted:

I posted the following in 1995:

[ Subject: Re: Should I let my SO eat meat???
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995

In article <3ka4q7$gdk@nitrogen.mankato.msus.edu>,
siona@krypton.mankato.msus.edu (Camille Klein) wrote:

The Meat Habit Kills Our Rainforests:

    To support the meat-eating habit, nowhere has the environmental
effect of cattle raising been more profound on both land and people
than in Brazil.

    Between 1966 and 1983, nearly 40,000 square miles of the Amazon
forest were cleared for commercial development.  The Brazilian
government estimated that 38 percent of all rainforest destroyed
during that period was attributable to large-scale cattle
developments.  Today, millions of cattle are grazing on the cleared
area of the Amazon.  So vicious is America's beef habit.

    The tragic irony is that the land being cleared and  enclosed
is poorly suited for grazing.  The soil base in a tropical ecosystem
is extremely thin and contains very few nutrients. These ancient
ecosystems exist in a climax state, quickly recycling energy back
from roots to canopy with very little allowed  to remain on  the
forest floor.  After just a few years of grazing  --  generally
three to five -- the soil is depleted, forcing the cattle ranchers
to clear more virgin land.

     - Caulfield, Catherine, "A Reporter at Large: The Rain
         Forests" NEW YORKER, January 14, 1985, page 49.
     - Parsons, James J., "The Scourge of Cows"
         WHOLE EARTH REVIEW, Spring 1988, page 44.
     - Rifkin, Jeremy, "BIOSPHERE POLITICS: A New Consciousness
         for a New Century," Crown, N.Y., 1991, page 51.
     - Rifkin, Jeremy, "BEYOND BEEF: The Rise and Fall of the
         Cattle Culture," Dutton, N.Y., 1992, page 195.

The Meat Habit Kills Our Supply of Medicines:

     Cattle-grazing is destroying the rain forests.  Most Americans
are so indoctrinated in the marvels of the petrochemical and
plastics revolution that they are unaware of how much they rely on
plants, many of them from tropical rain forests, to serve their
daily needs.

    Nearly a quarter of all medications and pharmaceuticals are
derived from tropical plants.  Seventy percent of the plants
identified by the National Cancer Institute as having anticancer
properties come from the tropical rain forests.

    Many kinds of surgical procedures depend on the bark of the
South American curare liana plants.  D-turbo turbocurarine and
other alkaloids derived from different species of the Chondodendron
and Strychnos genera are used are used to relax skeletal muscles
during delicate surgical operations.

    Steroid hormones like cortisone and diosgenin, the active
ingredients in birth-control pills, are derived from tropical
species of wild yams found in Guatemala and Mexico.

    Natural latexes, rubbers, resins, gums, dyes, waxes and oils
from tropical plants are used in industrial materials and as
chemical bases for consumer products ranging from lipstick and
deodorant to cellophane and furniture varnish.

    Still, despite the enormity of the potential biological losses,
multinational corporations, national governments, and local
ranchers continue their relentless assault on the rain forest,
bulldozing, clear-cutting, and burning acre after acre of the
richest biomass in the world, destroying millions of years of
evolutionary development.

     - Meyers, Norman, THE PRIMARY SOURCE,
         W.W. Norton, N.Y., 1983, pages 7, 8.
     - Rifkin, Jeremy, "BEYOND BEEF: The Rise and Fall of the
         Cattle Culture," Dutton, N.Y., 1992, pages 197, 198.
     - Caulfield, Catherine, "A Reporter at Large: The Rain
         Forests," NEW YORKER, January 14, 1985, pp. 59-61.

Jai Maharaj
Creator of newsgroups alt.jyotish, alt.language.hindi, alt.religion.hindu
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

You know Jai, I have been following posts and have been agreeing with
a lot of things you had to say until now.  I will NEVER abandon yummy
cow flesh.  EVER!!!  Good job with alienating yet another red-blooded
American.