What's your motivation?
So, Father Brendan Lee, you're 'suspicious of this whole plant-based meat phenomenon' (Thursday Thoughts, The Border Mail, February 20).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Rest assured, your traditional Sunday roast is not threatened, not by the odd headline-grabbing vegan extremist, anyway.
However, consuming smaller portions of red meat and/or choosing vegetarian, can be a healthier choice and more pertinently, would reduce methane emissions (a potent greenhouse gas) from a reduced cow and sheep population.
This would help to reverse the detrimental warming of the climate.
'But it's all alarmist propaganda', I hear you say?
Well, the Pope, the head of your church, has fully acknowledged the scientific consensus and overwhelming evidence of man-made climate change, as have the vast majority of informed Australians.
Whether they do more harm than good for their cause, at least vegan extremists are motivated by a deep-felt concern for the needless suffering of animals.
What's your motivation, I wonder?
Mike Bonito, Beechworth
New rolling stock, now
The outdated XPT train which dates back to 1982 in fact will not be replaced and updated with new rolling stock until 2023.Why not bring the new rolling stock on now, some three years earlier? One would suspect the government of the day would bring back recycled rolling stock, and hope to God there is not a repeat of an accident like that at Wallan on Thursday night.
The Albury to Melbourne railway upgrade is still at least 10 years away before completion date.
Kylie Davison-Hull, Daysdale
Stop playing blame game
What a tragedy the recent deaths of two rail workers near Wallan is, condolences to the relatives of the deceased. This should never have happened. The track has been in a poor state for years.
Finally, with national interest we might see some action to repair the line properly, politicians might now be prepared to really listen to our concerns. If a new railway line can be built from Alice Springs to Darwin in a year why can't our track be brought up to standard quickly?
In the meantime, remove the danger, let's use buses and pressure politicians find the funding and get the line fixed!
Bill Wilson, Beechworth
The money pit
I can only think of two names that would be applicable for the developed Lavington Sportsground ('Sports ground name change', The Border Mail, February 22).
Given that it is on the way to the Albury waste management centre, we could call it either the "waste of money pit" or "Lavington white elephant centre".