Tag: Practice
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I said I didn’t need a rice cooker
I grew up with rice and I have always known how to make perfect long grain white rice on the stove top. You measure out the rice, and then you measure out twice as much water into a pot with a good lid. One cup of rice takes two cups of water. Bring the water…
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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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Vegan catering fail—gluten free pizza, no cheese
I think “Vegan Catering Fail” and “Vegan Catering Win” are going to become blog series because bad vegan catering is just so common and good vegan catering is just so refreshing. I know some people might think I should be happy, grateful even, that there was any option at all that I could eat. But…
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Vegan catering win
I experienced a wonderful vegan catering win yesterday that unfortunately I didn’t think to take a photo of (it wasn’t apples). It was proof of how simple it is to make a vegan happy. I attended the Southwestern Ontario Feminism and Philosophy Workshop yesterday in Guelph. It is a rotating meeting where we gather to…
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A vegan feast for Canadian Thanksgiving
This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada, where we celebrate the harvest season. For me, it is a time to get together with my family. As a settler Canadian living on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton Nations, on lands connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the…
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On leading a “less hypocritical or richer or better life…”
One of the great things (for me) about starting this blog is the steady stream of recommendations people (especially Shelley and Samantha) send my way. This week, it was Lorna Finlayson’s London Review piece, “Let Them Eat Oysters” (thanks, Shelley!). Ostensibly a review essay of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation Now (Harper 2023) and Martha Nussbaum’s…
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And then there’s the roadkill objection
Is there anything wrong with eating roadkill or other “found food” that is not vegan? Food waste is another important issue, and there is a whole “freegan” movement that is based on the idea of eating food that will otherwise be thrown out or wasted. The larger issue of food waste (and freeganism as a…
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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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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…
