Tag: Animal Suffering
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Objections and replies
Next week I’ll be a guest in a philosophy graduate seminar my friend and colleague, Samantha, is teaching on philosophy and food. The students will be reading the most recent draft of my paper, “Meat-eating as ideology and ‘meat-eaters’ fragility’,” which I’ve blogged about before. They’re also reading David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster,” a…
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Would you rather not think about it?
Recently I was out for dinner with a group of people when the person beside me said they’d “rather not think about” where their food comes from. The idea here is, if I don’t think about it I don’t have to change anything. But if I DO think about it, I might at least feel…
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Making a difference
It’s easy to get demoralized when you’re doing something that goes against what the majority of people do. Living a vegan lifestyle can be like that. I’ve experienced that sense of ineffectiveness lately. I decided that today would be a good day to (1) remind myself why I have chosen this path and (2) pay…
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Travelling while vegan: Brittany and Normandy — the struggle was real
Content warning: apparent griping about “first world problems.” For ten days I finessed my way through a triple-challenge. Brittany and Normandy are tough at the best of times. So that was challenge #1. Add to that being on a tour with omnivores, where for the most part the dining venue was organized and not up…
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Why vegans avoid honey
I’m on a photography tour of France right now with a group of people who aren’t vegan. And though everyone is nice about it (at least to my face!), it’s been a bit of a challenge. When I’m trying to get along with people, especially new people, I’m not inclined to go toe-to-toe about reasons…
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Whom do you care for?
Bruges is a lovely town in Belgium, known for its beauty. Think well-preserved medieval buildings and quaint canals. It is also home to one of Europe’s oldest surviving hospital buildings, Sint-Janshospital, which is now a museum. The main hall where they used to care for patients has the grandeur of a church. It operated as…
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The ableism of arguments from intelligence
A friend to whom I recently recommended Ed Yong’s An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms around Us thanked me this week. He loved the book, and rightly so. It’s stellar, as I reported when I read it some time ago. And I was happy to have it brought back to mind.…
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What is a vegan to do when a favourite plant-based business expands to include animal products?
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve heard of two example — one local here in London, Ontario and one elsewhere, in LA — where a formerly fully plant-based business has decided to “change its business model” to include animal products. This decision always generates backlash among vegans, who see it as a betrayal and,…
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The threat of vegan cheese
An interesting story from The Washington Post came across my desk the other day about a vegan cheese that was a finalist in a cheese competition “A vegan cheese beat dairy in a big competition. Then the plot curdled.” The Good Food Foundation is an organization whose “Good Food Awards” recognize exceptional producers in the…
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Engage or chill?
Considering I’m a philosopher who has essentially been trained to argue, you might think my answer to “when to engage?” is “whenever the opportunity arises.” But that is not my approach at all. I have limited time and energy. I do not engage when it is hopeless. And there is a certain baiting approach, where…
Vegan Practically 