Former cattle rancher calls meat harmful

By Karolyn Kokko

Daily Staff Reporter

Howard Lyman, who labels himself "the cattle rancher who won't eat meat," talked about the negative impacts resulting from animal consumption at a lecture to kick off Earth Week 2000 last night.

"We're digging more graves with our fork today than any other instrument," said Lyman, who appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 to address Mad Cow disease.

He told the audience why he turned to veganism and why

others should as well. He also spoke of issues such as health, and how it can be improved by not eating animals.

Lyman said cholesterol comes from animal fat and the simplest way to cut down on cholesterol is to give up eating animals.

One of the issues some of the audience members were skeptical of was the lack of protein commonly associated from a vegetarian diet.

"High protein diets have potential to destroy the kidneys," Lyman said, adding that the body does not need that much protein to survive.

Lyman also devoted a large portion of the lecture time talking about the environment and how it is hurt by raising animals for mass food production.

"America takes 70 percent of the grain we grow and stuffs it down the throats of animals," Lyman said. If this chain continues, he said, there will not be enough natural resources to feed future generations.

Lyman said the majority of farms do not raise cows and chickens in a natural way. "Ground-up feathers are being fed to chickens, and cattle are being ground up and fed to cattle," he said.

He summed up his lecture by stating, "The thing I am most proud of is that no animal had to die for me to live."

"These issues are very dear to me," Engineering graduate student Anil Subramani said.

LSA junior Kristie Stoick said giving up meat has more benefits than just improved health.

"The best thing you can do to help out the environment is to go vegetarian." She also said students can attend lectures scheduled during Earth Week 2000 to learn more about helping out the environment.

More than 300 people attended last night's lecture, the first in a series that is part of the 30th anniversary of Earth Week. The event was sponsored by the Vegetarian Information Network & Exchange and Michigan Animal Rights Society.

DANNY KALICK/Daily

Former cattle rancher Howard Lyman speaks about the hazards of a meat-filled diet in Angell Hall last night.