Category: Ethics
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Lab-grown meat? I’ll take a veggie burger, please
In recent years you’ve likely encountered reports of lab-grown or cultivated meat. As outlined in the article, “Will I See Lab-Grown Meat in Supermarkets Any Time Soon?” some people consider it a great alternative that addresses any ethical concerns they might have about killing animals for food. And we are one step closer to it…
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Why is talking about food ethics so prickly?
In my “about” blurb I mention that the blog is a companion to a book-in-progress. One thing the blog is helpful for is working through some issues I’m having with tone. I realize that food ethics in general raises issues that immediately put people on the defensive. Why so prickly? I touched on this a…
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Some Reflections on Fish and other Seafood
A lot of people ease their way into vegetarianism or veganism through pescatarianism. Pescatarians avoid meat and poultry products, but they still consume and enjoy fish and seafood. In the past, I used to eat fish and seafood despite eating mostly vegetarian. So many “mostly-vegetarian” people will eat seafood on occasion (sometimes as a treat…
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Ways to be imperfect
Ever since I started my project on imperfect veganism, thinking of it more as a practice than as a theory, I’ve been reflected on the various ways a practicing vegan, who is vegan for ethical reasons, might be imperfect. I mention ethically-motivated vegans in particular because I think that someone who is vegan for health…
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Kindness Matters
kindness noun /ˈkaɪnd.nəs/ the quality of being kind kind adjective /kaɪnd/ generous, helpful, and thinking about other people’s feelings (from the Cambridge Dictionary) When vegans talk about their stance towards non-human animals, they often offer thoughts about the importance of kindness and compassion. The slogan “Kindness Matters” comes up a lot, and it is not…
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An Invitation to Be Imperfect
Really I don’t need to invite you to be imperfect. We are all already imperfect in so many ways. A frequent rejoinder these days is “don’t be so hard on yourself.” Few people are harder on themselves (or frankly on others), than people who have strong ethical convictions that they sometimes fail to live up…
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Dining with omnivores: It takes some finessing
I belong to a local vegan group on Facebook, and people are forever asking for input about where they can go out for a meal with omnivores — “nice” restaurants, family restaurants, special occasion restaurants, kid-friendly restaurants that don’t break the bank. Almost as often, someone will name a particular restaurant that they are going…
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Why “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace Is My Favourite Essay
In 2003, Gourmet Magazine sent David Foster Wallace to do a story on the Maine Lobster Festival (MLF). The resulting article, “Consider the Lobster,” appeared in August 2004. In my view it’s one of the best pieces of non-fiction writing to question the ideology of eating animals, in this case lobster, ever written. It starts…
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Welcome to Vegan. Practically.
Welcome to Vegan. Practically. I’m Tracy Isaacs, a philosophy professor, author, co-founder of and blogger at Fit Is a Feminist Issue, and, since 2011, vegan, if sometimes imperfectly so, for ethical reasons. I offer this blog as an invitation to anyone who is curious, considering, or already committed to making lifestyle and eating choices guided…
Vegan Practically 