July
1994
Letter
from the Editor
By Martin Rowe
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First of all, I’d like to thank those who picked
up Satya,
and have by doing so made another edition possible. Secondly, welcome
to those who have picked up Satya for the first time. I think you’ll
see that Satya fully confirms its stated goal of being a magazine
for
human as well as animal justice, for human health as well as planetary
health.
Patrick Donnelly’s inspiring piece on the Whole Foods Project
makes clear the pressing concern of supplying people (sick or not) with
food that will not poison them or the land, give them life-threatening
illness or transfer it to others. His words are a call for compassion
and sustaining a proper relation to food - one based on a respect for
source and for resources. Ken Baer is bringing his own vegetarianism
to his political activism specifically to help people save the planet:
it’s an urgent call we would do well to hear.
Antonia Gorman’s story of her dog Ginger is a remarkable testament
to the lengths animals will go in their dedication to their human counterparts.
Ginger’s love of her owner, however, is more than matched by her
bravery and her resourcefulness, her intelligence and stamina. The skills
Ginger employed were very much of her own kind (an extraordinary sense
of smell, a brilliance in following tracks); and that is why the respect
due to her should also be for her own kind. Ginger didn’t act
like a human, she acted like the dog she is - that is why she deserves
respect. Ginger’s story is a clarion call for humans to recognize
that all animals in their own way have the sort of all-embracing fortitude
and intelligence displayed by Ginger. If we see no evidence of it as
yet, we should not assume its absence. If we do so, we could deny life
to a creature as complex as Ginger.
More than anything, however, Antonia’s story - as well as the
other pieces in Satya - offer us startling examples of the possibilities
of connections between what we eat and who we are, what we eat and
what
we do, and who we share our lives with and what they can do for us.
Finally, this paper would be nothing without you, the reader and the
writer. I want you to start and continue telling us your views and your
stories, to lead towards a better and more compassionate world.
Enjoy!
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