John P. Darmanin (The Sunday Times, August 5) writes: "I also consider animals to be my friends, therefore I do not harm them in any way so I don't eat them." He adds (and this is what prompted me to respond), "Imagine you eat your beloved dog or cat. It would be most unnatural because in nature, prey and predator are enemies".

A contradiction in itself, because in nature, most animals hunt other animals to satisfy their appetite while in other cases, they depend on vegetation. So if it comes to that, eating your cat or dog would be a natural thing to do!

In modern civilisation (not nature) one can understand not wanting to eat one's own pets but what about the vegetation? By the same argument, we might very well wake up one day to find the creation of a new lobby group in favour of not eating fruit and vegetables for the same reasons that vegetarians say they will not eat meat.

I can just picture some group asking why should a lettuce or any vegetable that has taken so much care and attention to be grown, be destroyed just to ensure man's survival on the planet? Then what are we going to live on?

I wanted "to know more about vegetarianism" so I visited www.vegmalta.org. In it I read that "Alternative markets are continually being created by demand for new, substitute products by consumers, like soya products that have recently become staple products in every supermarket".

Are vegetarians aware of the fact that the US is the largest supplier of soya and that 90 per cent of the soya grown there is genetically modified? Are vegetarians aware that this means that a good percentage of the soya they are promoting as their main staple diet contains these GMOs which, as far as I know, could very well contain some sort of animal extract?

Having been a fruit and vegetable grower all my life and having been so active in the representation of Maltese growers, I should be and indeed I am, very pleased with the idea of promoting more use of fruit and vegetables, but not to such extremes.

Of course vegetarians have a right to their opinion but I am one of those who eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, normally accompanied by a bit of meat or fish. Nothing wrong at all with a vegetarian dish once in a while, but to me this should be the exception and not the rule.

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