Category: Environment
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Travelling while vegan: Costa Rica gets a B
I am travelling home today from Costa Rica, where I participated in a long-awaited wildlife photography tour. As I like to do when I travel, I want to comment on what it is like to travel as a vegan in this part of the world. My comments won’t be representative of the whole country because…
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On the matter of protein and dessert
It’s a well-known fact that if you tell someone you’re vegan there is a very good chance that they will ask you what you do for protein. People picture a plate. It is divided into three parts; meat or fish, potatoes or rice, and veggies. When you say you’re vegan they imagine an empty third.…
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Can Jane Goodall inspire you to go vegan?
The world lost Jane Goodall last week, but her legacy of advocacy for non-human animals will have a lasting impact. Many people have lamented her death, posting tributes and professing to share her values. In 2017, Jane Goodall wrote: “There are three main reasons why we should eat less – or preferably no – meat.…
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The “Wellness Industry” Is Not Kind to All
I recently celebrated my birthday by spending the day at Thermea Spa Village in Whitby, Ontario. These Nordic-style spa villages are a thing now, where different temperature pools and saunas are interspersed among loungers and hammocks and wood-burning fire pits. You’re encouraged to do a “thermal cycle” of heat (sauna or hot pool), cold plunge,…
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Is McDonald’s new McVeggie worth supporting?
McDonald’s Canada has been trying out a new veggie offering. According to the McD’s website, the McVeggie “features a breaded veggie patty made with a blend of vegetables (including carrots, green beans, zucchini, peas, soybeans, broccoli and corn) and seasoning, topped with shredded lettuce and mayo-style sauce served on a toasted sesame bun.” PETA says…
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Is it rude to eat animal products in the presence of vegans?
Awhile back I foreshadowed some future topics for the blog, all of which took up the intersection of ethics and etiquette in a way I find interesting. I find it interesting because mostly I think it’s a matter of ethics and environmentalism; but since so many people don’t consider the ethical or environmental impact of…
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Vegan options at non-vegan restaurants
Last week I posed three questions for future discussion. Today I’m going to focus on the first of these questions: If you’re a restaurant offering vegan options, is it right to frame them as burdensome favours for difficult guests? It’s not the best-worded question because it seems as if the obvious answer has got to…
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Thoughts to foreshadow future topics
Getting back to the blog after an hiatus, you’d think I’d have no end of topics lined up. Instead, I just have a swirl of thoughts that I need to wrestle into some sort of order before I can give them their due. So today let me get started on taming the swirl by identifying…
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Reconnecting with the blog’s purpose
I’ve been flailing around quite a bit with respect to the blog this year. A number of things have contributed to the wildly inconsistent post schedule (if you can even call it a schedule these days). Sometimes when I’m faltering with something I care about I find it helpful to remind myself why I care…
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Has beef really been “unfairly” vilified? Spoiler: no.
A while back a few people sent me an article from the New York Times about meat “making a comeback.” To believe that you need to believe it went anywhere. The narrative reminds me so much of when people start wringing their hands about “unqualified workforces” because suddenly there is a small percentage of people…
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