Category: Ethics
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The future is (alt) meat
We have a breakfast and lunch place near us in Toronto called Evviva. They have two menus. One is “regular” and the other is a full plant-based menu, the most extensive I’ve ever seen for breakfast and brunch. You can get scrambled or sunny-side up eggs with your plant-based bacon and sausage. You can get…
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You don’t have to eat dead birds on Thanksgiving (or ever)
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US. It’s an occasion where millions of people give no thought whatsoever to their tradition of eating a dead, stuffed bird. 46 million turkeys die to become the focal point of festive tables across the country. That volume of production means factory farming, which accounts for 99.8% of all turkey…
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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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Vegandale Toronto 2025
Vegandale is a vegan festival with lots of vegan food options, some information about cruelty in animal agriculture, and a very small (disappointingly small) amount of non-food vegan merch. The Toronto event in Woodbine Park is also adjacent to a coffee rave, which means the entire time a DJ is spinning loud dance music with…
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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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Do vegans have obligations to non-vegans?
A couple of weeks ago I raised three topics for future discussion. Last week I discussed omni restaurants that include vegan options. Today I’m skipping past the second question and instead going on to the third (I’ll go back to the second next time). In the original post I put it as “how tolerant should…
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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…
Vegan Practically 