To the editor:

An article recently published in the Dayton Daily News, headlined, “Research ramping up for alternatives to meat,” caught my attention. While I support both free-market ingenuity and entrepreneurship, I am concerned that the effort to replace meat on the dinner table with a “meat alternative” could end up having adverse effects on Ohio’s meat industry.

Not only is meat and protein a very important component of our diet, but it is also an important contributor to Ohio’s economy. The state’s beef industry, for instance, produces about $500 million annually in economic impact. When it comes to poultry, egg, chicken and turkey farms create more than 14,600 jobs annually and generate more than $400 million for our economy each year.

Not only can meat in the diet build strong people, but with its economic impact, meat also helps us build a strong state. Therefore, although people are free to eat what they want, I will stand up and fight back against anything that hopes to unfairly tarnish our state’s meat industry.

Jim Buchy

State Representative

House District 84