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Tuesday, July 27, 2004
-Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Jared Paben
Managing Editor:
Travis Willse
EDI TORI AI
Legislators
should approve
2005-07 budget
for students' sake
Dear Oregon Legislators,
You may have read in the papers, or maybe in a briefing
from an aide, that the Oregon State Board of Higher Educa
tion recently proposed a $710 million budget for the 2005-07
biennium. While the "Essential Budget Level" proposal in
cludes a 5 percent tuition increase for students already cash
strapped by years of dramatic increases, the increase is a mod
est one, and one that won't unduly hurt students. (Resident
undergraduates at the University — the most expensive of
schools in the Oregon University System — paid only $3,258
for a full year's tuition and fees a decade ago; by contrast, stu
dents this year will pay a comparatively exorbitant $5,670.)
So, we humbly suggest that you approve the recommenda
tion: Doing so would allow OUS schools to continue to edu
cate students with the same levels of program funding, allow
ing for increased expenses, and help better educate the state's
populace. Indeed, a more highly skilled and informed public
makes easily for a more competitive and vibrant state econo
my. (Regrettably, the funding maintained by the proposed
budget allows for only a relatively threadbare higher educa
tion program, one left in dire operational straits by slipping
legislative support in recent years, and does not portend a path
to increasingly needed reinvestment in the system.)
More to this end, we further suggest that legislators approve
a $20 million so-called policy package requested by the Board
to further alleviate the financial burden of current and incom
ing students, by reducing the net tuition increase to 3.6 per
cent (the projected increase in median family income over the
same period), as well as introduce bills designed to improve
the funding of an increasingly emaciated system, and to
broaden access to that system for the betterment of the state's
quality of life.
Regards,
The Emerald Editorial Board
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jared Paben Travis Willse
Editor in Chief Managing Editor
Erik R. Bishoff
Online & Photo Editor
ONLINE POLL
THIS WEEK'S POLL RESULTS
Which summer movie have you most looked forward to? (33 votes)
1. Fahrenheit 9/11: 49 percent 5. Super Size Me: 6 percent
2. Spiderman 2:21 percent 6.1, Robot: 3 percent
3. Anchorman: 15 percent 7. The Clearing: 0 percent
4 The Bourne Supremacy: 6 percent
NEXT WEEK’S QUESTION
Are you a carnivore or a vegetarian? Visit www.dailyemerald.com to vote.
• Carnivore - It’s natural for humans • Vegetarian - Eating meat is cruel,
to eat meat . vegetarian - For environmental
• Carnivore - Meat is a good source reasons.
of protein and vitamins. . Vegetarian _ For hea,th reasons.
• Carnivore-Meat tastes good!
Just when I thought
we couldn’t get the
world to hate us any
more, I get thrown
a curve ball!
" v.r V_r-.v
Ge^
o*
•tVit
Aaron Sullivan Illustrator
What’s for dinner?
More than seven years ago, neck-deep in
the rebelliousness of my early high school
years, I decided to make the switch from the
realm of meat-eaters to that of vegetarian
ism. As a pimple-faced freshman, the change
was probably more about rebelling against
the overabundance of hamburgers and hot
dogs at home or trying to find an identity in
the culture of small-town Creswell, but, I feel
I've made the right choice.
The agonizing problem is: To this day
I've had to explain that choice, again and
again, and each time the explanation
becomes shorter and weaker.
The problem is not that genuinely curi
ous carnivores keep inquiring, but that I've
slacked off in my explanations.
So here it is: the super-sized argument
for joining vegetarianism.
First, the health benefits are obvious.
Now, I'm all for drinking beer and eating
potato chips for dinner (and have many
times), but I try to shy away from the
steroids, chemicals and hormones pollut
ing our country's animal meat supply.
According to Dr. Michael Lam, a special
ist in anti-aging medicine who also holds
degrees in public health and medicine, the
meat industry commonly feeds cattle hor
mones that can eventually cause cancer in
humans. The industry also feeds cattle an
tibiotics — more than 5,000 tons of them
every year, or about half the amount manu
factured in the United States — to increase
the animals' body weight, according to
Lam. These antibiotics kill favorable intes
tinal bacteria in humans, leaving us vulner
able to disease. Also, the overuse of antibi
otics leads to resistant strains of bacteria in
these animals, such as some strains of sal
monella. These bacteria ravage animals
and, eventually, beef-eating humans alike.
Chickens are also fed antibiotics in an
often-failed effort to keep them healthy, ac
cording to Lam. Because chickens are
forced to live in cramped coops without
fresh air and are sometimes fed disgusting
substances that can include cardboard,
sawdust, used newspaper and animal feces,
they often develop tumors and other
M-mml
JARED PABEN
HELP WANTED
deformities. Fanners kill more than 14,000
tons of cancerous-tumor-infected poultry
every year, often reprocessing the animals
into feed for other animals, which humans
eventually eat. Chickens are also fed pesti
cides and fungicides that poison our body
and weaken our immune systems.
Eating meat also exposes humans to
chemicals not intentionally added to ani
mals' diets. Dioxins — which enter the en
vironment from many sources, including ve
hicle combustion and garbage burning —
are generally understood to increase the risk
of cancer and cause serious health problems.
Most enter our bodies through eating meat
and animal products, according to an Envi
ronmental Protection Agency report.
Waste from cattle also poses a direct threat
to humans' health, according to a Time maga
zine article. Cow droppings have, in recent
years, been implicated in the "outbreak of
such diseases as Pfiesteria, which causes mem
ory loss, confusion and acute skin burning in
people exposed to contaminated water."
The next big argument for not eating
meat is the inhumane manner in which
the animals are often slaughtered. Accord
ing to an April 10, 2001, Washington Post
article, slaughter houses repeatedly violate
the Humane Slaughter Act by butchering
conscious cattle. Under federal law, ani
mals must first be stunned and rendered
unconscious with a blow to the head or
electric shock, but, at plants across the
United States, processes fail and conscious
animals go down the assembly line while
workers cuts pieces off and skin them alive.
"... the government took no action against
a Texas beef company that was dted 22 times
in 1998 for violations that included chop
ping hooves off live cattle," the article stated.
"In another case, (U.S. Department of Agri
culture) supervisors failed to take action on
multiple complaints of animal cruelty at a
Florida beef plant and fired an animal health
technician for reporting the problems to the
Humane Society. The dismissal letter sent to
the technician, Tim Walker, said his disclo
sure had 'irreparably damaged' the agency's
relations with the packing plant."
Again, the same goes for the treatment of
chickens. According to a New York Times
article, People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals released videotapes taken by an
undercover member of the group of acts of
cruelty in a West Virginia slaughterhouse
that supplies Kentucky Fried Chicken. In
the video, an employee tore the head off a
chicken to write graffiti and squeezed birds
until they exploded, according to the article.
A third reason for not eating meat is the
impact meat consumption has on the en
vironment. According to the Time article,
it takes 7,000 pounds of water to grow sev
en pounds of feed, which produces one
pound of feedlot beef. Around the world,
wells are going dry producing crops for an
imals, instead of direct consumption by
humans, according to the article. Also, the
drive to produce more beef is one of the
biggest reasons for deforestation.
According to the National Audubon So
ciety, "Nearly half the water consumed in
this country and 70 percent of the grain
gown is used for livestock, mostly cattle. It
take almost 16 pounds of grass and grain
to produce one pound of beef. If the land
on which grain is grown were used to
grow, say, black beans instead, it would
generate 10 to 20 times as much protein."
There you have it: my reasons for turning
my back on the consumption of animal
flesh. So, if I roll my eyes and explain to you
curious carnivores that I simply gave up
meat because I don't like the taste, don't take
offense. I'm not lying, and I certainly don't
have a beef with you, I'm just being lazy.
editor@dailyemerald.com
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