The rest of the story about eating meat

The letter titled “Not eating meat is a good idea,” in the Inter Lake for Feb. 24,reaches the wrong conclusion. Kerry Brack refers to Genesis 1:29 where God told Adam to eat from seed-bearing plants and trees. But, later, in Genesis 3:17-19, he was required to scratch in the ground for additional food.

Our letter writer should have kept going to Genesis 9:3 & 4, where God gave mankind meat to eat. This probably was required due to changing climatic conditions after the flood.

Kerry refers to medical reports linking consumption of animal products with killer diseases. It’s not the meat; it’s mankind’s present processing of it. If you look further into the Bible, you will see that God gave the Israelites instructions on how to process their meat.

Jesus was not a vegan. The first Lent (if we can call it that), was concluded with a roasted lamb, and those who participated were required to eat or otherwise consume all of it (see Exodus 12:8-10).

Producing meat does not have to cause environmental degradation, which Kerry refers to. Turn cows loose in a grassy field, let them eat, and when mature, let them walk to the processing plant (suitably situated, of course). Producing food for vegans to eat, however, requires plowing a field with polluting machinery, and may include cutting trees with polluting chain saws. Then you have to use more polluting machinery to plant the crops, harvest them, and transport them to the packaging plant.

So, not eating meat is actually a BAD idea. —Dale Ferguson, Polson