The trouble with meat - foodborne pathogens - includes related articles - Cover Story

E: The Environmental Magazine, May-June, 1998 by Jim Motavalli, Tracey C. Rembert

Walker sees the Center's work as "getting at the nexus of consumption, environment, land use and modern farming methods. The purpose is to affect policy and change public opinion." To that end, the Center held its first conference, "Equity, Health and the Earth's Resources: Food Security and Social Justice," at the school last November. In a talk entitled, "What is a Healthy Diet?" Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University discussed his work with The China Health Project, which has studied the diets of Chinese peasants since the early 1980s. His conclusion: the more plant-based foods in the diet, the lower the incidence of disease. "The Chinese who eat the least fat and animal products have substantially lower rates of cancer, heart attack and several other chronic, degenerative diseases," Dr. Campbell says. Ironically, Chinese cities are trying to play catch-up with the West: Shanghai, for instance, has Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and McDonald's.

While it's not an animal rights group, the Center concludes that modern intensive animal agriculture methods "harm animals unnecessarily and produce food inefficiently." Henry Spira, the veteran activist who is coordinator of Animal Rights International in New York , says the Center's work "is important because it focuses on solving problems," he says. "It's not just a bunch of academics talking. It's a think tank, but also a `do' tank." CONTACT: Center for a Livable Future, 111 Market Place, Suite 840, Baltimore, MD 21202/(410) 223-1608.