The column about vegetarianism by Jonquil Wegmann in the Oct. 17 Daily did an excellent job of bringing some problems of modern agricultural techniques to light.

However, I think relating these problems to consumption of meat and/or support of vegetarianism is misleading.

In reality, there are two issues in the column, sustainable agriculture and morality issues of eating meat.

I think the former is a very important point — surely, consumption of antibiotics, steroids and pesticides is an unhealthy thing. However, being a vegetarian alone doesn’t stop this.

Pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides are used in tremendous amounts on fruits and vegetables of all kinds.

In addition, the problem of soil erosion and water use mentioned in the article are, again, not problems limited to livestock production.

Farmers in the Southwest regularly drain natural water sources to irrigate land that could never support crops naturally.

Topsoil erosion by farmers right here in Iowa is a major environmental problem.

The alternative is organic vegetarianism. However, Ms. Wegmann didn’t mention this is the only kind of vegetarianism meets many of these issues, and it must surely account for a very small fraction of vegetarians.

But vegetarianism isn’t necessary to avoid chemicals in food, as “organic” meat is also available from farmers who feed livestock naturally and without antibiotics.

I think it is also worth mentioning that “the jury is still out” regarding the archeological evidence of what early humans ate.

My undergraduate anthropology classes were a long time ago, but I believe many researchers believe humans were neither vegetarians nor carnivores, but omnivores who were scavengers.

Instead of resorting to vegetarianism, I believe it is much more beneficial for the entire planet to radically alter current agricultural methods and adopt sustainable practices both in the raising of livestock and crops.

As Ms. Wegmann mentioned, the current practices in our country and abroad are wasteful, environmentally unsound and ultimately destructive.

David VanderWiel

Graduate student

Chemical engineering