In an article about conditioned thinking, Martin Stepek writes about "thoughts and views that can be lodged deeply in your mindset" and adds:"I was taught to be considerate of others, not to be greedy and other ethical behaviours" (Living with the enemy within, Mind & body, Sunday Herald Life, May 14).

This is, hopefully, how most people are brought up, yet most develop a blind spot, so that otherwise decent, kind people, who would not wish to knowingly harm others, do so, usually on a daily basis.

Some, thankfully, recognise their blind spot and do something to correct it. Albert Einstein, who Martin Stepek quotes as saying that "common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18", wrote that "the love of living creatures is for me the finest and best trait of mankind" and that "a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind". Yet, at this time, he was not vegetarian. In 1953, he wrote: "I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience"..

In 1954, he had finally made the change by putting what was deep in his mind into practice, writing: "I am living without fats, without meat, without fish."

Most of us know, deep in our hearts, that being complicit in an industry that causes cruelty and suffering just so that we can consume the end product is not acceptable. We can all, like Einstein, take the logical next step. When we are mindful of what our animal-based diet is condoning and supporting, we just know that it cannot be justified.

Sandra Busell

Edinburgh