Category: Animal Suffering
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Meat-eating as an ideology of privilege
I have mentioned before that meat-eating is an ideology. Here “meat-eating” is really a stand-in for the use and consumption of animal products more generally. As for “ideology,” if you just consult the dictionary you’ll come away thinking of ideology neutrally, as a system of ideas, usually associated with political positions. But I like the…
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Does “vegan for the animals” support moderation as an end-point?
I have blogged a lot about reasons for being vegan. As regular readers are aware, I think “vegan for the animals” is decisive. Given the vast animal suffering and exploitation in factory farming, from which 99% of all animals products originate, and given that the moral balance in causing suffering and death to trillions (yes,…
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Ten reasons to try more vegan living in 2024
As the new year approaches, it’s a great time to think about what sorts of positive changes might make 2024 better than 2023. On Friday I’ll be more specific about ways to insert more vegan options into your life. But today I am going to offer a few reasons worthy of consideration for anyone who…
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On being vegan in a sea of omnivores whom you love
I’ve just finished reading Ed Winters’s book, This Is Vegan Propaganda: And Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You (Vermillion 2022). It’s a great book with really good info about the impact of animal agriculture (particularly factory farming) on the animals, the planet, and humans’ health (not just the claim that veganism is a nutritionally…
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The perverse tradition of “pardoning the turkey”
It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S. today (we had our Canadian Thanksgiving back in October). Frequently called “Turkey Day,” Thanksgiving is a day when the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates 46 million turkeys will be eaten. Another 22 million will find their way onto Christmas tables. Altogether, Americans consume an estimated 245 million (PETA) to 250…
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What’s wrong with non-human animal research?
Last week I had the pleasure of being an examiner for a truly brilliant PhD thesis by philosopher, Jess Du Toit, entitled, What Do We Owe the Other Animals in Health-Related Research. It’s a compelling and sustained philosophical analysis for what is wrong with the majority of health-related animal research and what major reforms would…
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The dark side of dairy
The dark side of dairy isn’t some secret underbelly of practice that we don’t know about. It’s obvious that the main reason mammals produce milk is as a source of nutrition for their babies. No recent pregnancy? No milk. So yes, in order for cows to lactate, they need to give birth. In order to…
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Unreflective carnivores, the marginal case argument, and making a difference
I’ve been reading around quite a bit as I prep to write a new paper. When I say “reading around,” I am referring mostly to philosophy papers on topics in food and animal ethics, mostly as they seem relevant to veganism, meat-eating, animal suffering, and possible moral requirements that facts about animal suffering might yield.…
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Why single out horses?
Did you know that Canada is the leading exporter of live horses for meat? This fact hit the news this week because of a private member’s bill introduced to Canadian Parliament calling for a ban on these live exports. In 2022, 2600 live horses, bred specifically as livestock for consumption, were shipped to Japan. Once…
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Should vegans be eating “facsimiles of flesh”?
I just read a paper called “Facsimiles of Flesh“ by philosophers Bob Fischer and Burkay Ozturk that goes against my long-held belief that there is nothing wrong with eating realistic facsimiles of animal products. Indeed, I have even made the case that from a harm reduction perspective these imitators are welcome additions to the vegan…
Vegan Practically 