Behind the Vegan Scare

A healthy vegan baby boy.
Yes, they do exist. 

Maybe you've heard about the Florida mother, Sarah Anne Markham, who was arrested earlier this week for child neglect. Her baby was admitted to a hospital suffering from dehydration and she refused to allow the baby to be given medicine because she claimed "it contained ingredients that came from animals." (Source)

Headline version: The woman had been feeding her baby organic soy formula and the baby, at 12 days old, became dehydrated. Markham told the police she had chosen the formula in consultation with a vegan doctor, but she did not provide her/his name, and she was elusive under questioning. The police arrested Markham and her infant is now in protective custody.

It's a heartbreaking story, but already media outlets are likening it to a case of an Atlanta couple that starved their six-week-old child to death on a vegan diet of soy formula and apple juice. When the baby boy died, he weighed a shocking three and a half pounds. A similar case in France generated headlines when a vegan couple was arrested by French authorities, charged with "neglect and food deprivation" after their 11-month-old baby - who was given only breast milk and nothing else - died. (Source)

One can - and ought to - sympathize with these tiny and most helpless of victims. To die of malnutrition or starvation is a horrid way to perish (let's face it, there aren't any good ways to die, either). Neglectful parents have a great deal to answer for, and these infants undoubtedly suffered the unthinkable due to poor parenting.

Having said that, it is interesting to note how the press has used these worst-case scenarios, which happen to involve veganism, as cautionary tales to warn people against the vegan lifestyle. In Markham's case, the headlines proved quite sensational: "Is Veganism Child Abuse?" (Salon.com), "Vegan Florida Mother Arrested and Accused of Neglecting Child" (WEAR ABC Channel 3), "Vegan Parent Denies Infant Medicine" (KSN-TV), "Vegan Mother Arrested for Child Neglect Over Beliefs" (eMaxHealth), "Mother charged with neglect after refusing to take her dehydrated newborn to a hospital over staunch VEGAN beliefs" (Daily Mail, UK - the all upper-case vegan was their emphasis, not mine).

It's possible to go on, but you get the picture. The cumulative effect of these stories is to throw a scare into any parents who are considering raising their babies and children on a vegan diet.

Full disclosure: I'm a vegan but my kids are not. I embraced veganism at age 41. That was five years ago, in 2009. By that time, my kids were into their teen years, and even though I sought to live by example and promoted the lifestyle, they were not prepared to embrace it like I was.

It's not unusual for people to embrace veganism later in life, and to allow their children to go on being omnivores. I've known other vegans who've taken this approach. There is nothing wrong with it.

I have also known - and admire - vegans who raise their children as vegans. Among the most attentive parents I've seen (many of whom are Facebook friends) insist on rearing their children as vegans. The ones I know make sure their children not only enjoy balanced diets, but delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinner, right down to the vegan bakery treats for dessert.

You won't hear about these diligent vegan parents in the latest media vegan scare. Plus, there is a glaring double standard at work here. While veganism is treated as the culprit in these very isolated cases of child neglect (only three that I have been able to pinpoint), one does not see deaths from tainted meat treated in the same hysterical fashion. Six years ago, there was a big listeria outbreak in Canada in which 22 people died and a number of others were hospitalized. Rather than warning about the dangers of meat consumption, which resulted in the tragic outbreak, press outlets instead assured a frightened public that eating meat was fine, that the "bad meat" (which in this case consisted of cold cuts from Maple Leaf Foods) had been removed from store shelves, and there was no need to panic.

In addition to the aforementioned double standard, it is important to note that the two heavily publicized infant deaths mentioned above were the result of starvation and malnutrition, not veganism. Vegans who eat healthy diets do not starve (that's coming from a husky vegan who's always dieting, always trying to watch his weight). Veganism may be touted by celebrities like J-Lo as the hot new way to lose weight. But believe me, once you get used to living the lifestyle, and your body has a chance to adjust to it, it's just as easy to gain weight as a vegan as it is being an omnivore.

So what's behind this media-generated vegan scare? It is all noise and no substance. If anything, it speaks to the ignorance of many of the journalists reporting on it. Veganism is healthy for human beings when it consists of a balanced diet. No diet - vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, carnivore - is going to make a difference if one is being starved to death.

Farewell Casey Kasem, Humanitarian, Vegan and Advocate for Animals - and All-Around Great Guy

I was a huge Casey Kasem fan in the 1970s and 1980s, back in the heyday of the radio show he hosted, American Top 40.

Little did I know at the time that Casey was very political. In fact, he was a lifelong supporter of a variety of progressive causes, including the anti-nuclear movement, environmentalism, social justice and Arab-American rights. And guess what else? He was a committed vegan and an animal rights activist! He became a vegetarian in 1974 and a vegan in the early 2000s. 

With a heavy heart, I read of Casey's passing over the weekend. He died at the age of 82, after spending years combating the effects of Parkinson's disease.

He was a man of so many talents. Not only was he known as Mr. Top 40, he was also a master voiceover artist, perhaps most famous as the voice of the hippie slacker Shaggy in Scooby Doo.

Because Kasem was more famous as a nationally recognized D.J., most people probably overlooked all of the wonderful work he did to help animals. He was, for example, the national chair of the Great American Meatout, which sought to educate people about the harm and violence that came with meat consumption. In 2005, he received the Celebrity Animal Advocate Award at the National Animal Rights Conference.

In a 2007 interview with Dr. John A. McDougall, Kasem discussed his views on the treatment of animals. What better tribute to Kasem than to include his views here?

Here are Casey Kasem's reflections:

"Let's begin with the chickens. Put in those cages that are no bigger than a folded newspaper. Chickens have pride and a pecking order. When you consider that they are in there, some of them without beaks and some of them with beaks. Those that have beaks of course cannibalize the others, because they need room to move, they can't even move their wings. And of course their feet are getting tangled in the wire. And then there is one wire cage set upon another and another and another and another. And the feces fall on top of the heads of these creatures. As they are born and they happen to be born a male chicken, they are thrown into a plastic bag and they suffocate in the bodies of their brothers. And the female chickens, their beaks are put into a metal machine that cuts the beak off. Some of them don't survive that. They are made to create eggs and ultimately become food for animals I guess, if not human beings."

"The pigs are stored very often in the same way. In concrete buildings that are warehouse size. And in order to keep the floors of the building clean, they use ammonia. We know that pigs are much more sensitive in smell than humans are. Could you imagine living your entire life smelling ammonia, day in and day out, in a darkened room. Children don't know that those pigs don't get out and play in the mud, that those pigs are just products, treated like inanimate products."

"Then you have the calves, in their 2 by 4 prisons. Where they have no opportunity to ever feed on their mother's breast. The animal is immediately taken from the mother and the calf is put into this little stall. Not allowed to suck on anything, but just fed milk, so the price for their bodies can be a lot higher as they sell milk-fed veal to customers at restaurants. The mother, the cow. Never seeing their offspring, but being artificially inseminated, again and again and again, so that their udders will be full, because they are impregnated. And that means more milk for the dairymen. Their udder is so big, that they are literally on the floor. They too, hardly ever see the sun or the grass or graze."

"And this goes on and on and on. For all kinds of animals. Not to mention the ones that are being experimented upon. So, this is my priority. I feel that if I do nothing else in life, but can turn a few people around, I can do a lot to help the animals in their tortured lives."

"In protest against the animal industry, we have to stand up and let people know why it is that we don't eat cheese and we don't drink milk. Besides from the fact that it's not healthy for you, how very unhealthy it is for those animals who have just become products. They are not beings anymore in the eyes of the people who produce them."

"I believe that if in the 4th or 5th grade, children could take a field trip to a slaughterhouse, we wouldn't have to worry about people becoming vegetarians. It would be just automatic. It would happen in a day. Those kids would get such an eyeful and their teachers as well."

"I just think that Americans, who unfortunately grow up watching television, motion pictures, day in and day out, where there is so much slaughter of human beings. I would hope that they would recognize, that if we can go back to the very basic thing, that is not to want to bring death to anything, anything that has eyes and can run away from you. And realize that that is basically right and should be just core in our thinking, then that could be the beginning of really a new world order, ultimately. Because as long as we keep killing animals, I have a feeling that we're going to keep killing people. There is certainly a relationship there."

Farewell, Casey. Your wonderful voice of compassion and reason will always be missed!

Vegan Stories: Professional Boxer David Haye

On Celebs Who Go Vegan, But Not For the Animals

J-Lo and fur coat. Jennifer Lopez is the latest celebrity to convert to veganism for reasons that have nothing to do with animals. 

It seems like at least once a week, you hear about a celebrity who "goes vegan."

The latest convert to veganism is pop diva and actress Jennifer Lopez, a.k.a. J-Lo. J-Lo went vegan earlier this year, and she is now crediting the diet with leading to her abrupt 10-pound weight loss. She explained her reasoning recently to Access Hollywood:

I'll be honest with you guys, since I had the babies about six years ago, I had that really stubborn 8 to 10 pounds on me. People are used to seeing me be kind of thickish, but when I started eating [vegan], right away I dropped like 8 to 10 pounds. It was a real change, but more than that I felt better and people were like, 'Your energy's better,' ... everything's better.

In the Access Hollywood interview, there was one word J-Lo never mentioned: "animals." It's clear that Lopez did not embrace veganism for ethical reasons. She merely wanted to get rid of that 8 to 10 pounds she put on when she had babies. In fact, at one point in the same interview, J-Lo advises, "The truth is, even if you're 70-80 percent vegan, it's so much better having those vegetables, greens, plant-based stuff. It's going to change your health."

I know what you're thinking. "Huh? 70-80 percent vegan???" One cannot be 70-80 percent vegan, any more than one can be 70-80 percent kind, or 70-80 percent ethical, or 70-80 percent of anything that demands an entire lifestyle commitment. You either live that life or you don't.

What J-Lo probably should've said is "even if your diet is 70-80 percent plant-based." But I imagine these matters having to do with semantics are lost on the singer/actress. She is clearly not an ethical vegan. She is not doing it for the animals. In fact, J-Lo has been a target in the past of anti-fur protesters for constantly wearing fur coats.

I don't want to pick on J-Lo. Lots of celebrities have "gone vegan" for reasons that have nothing to do with animals. One of the recent big vegan crazes is the so-called "22-Day Vegan Diet." Such entertainers as power couple Jay Z and Beyonce have gone on it. Ashley (High School Musical) Tisdale has started on it.

Two years ago, actress Michelle Pfeiffer went vegan, after being inspired by a documentary about Bill Clinton's conversion to veganism. Al Gore also embraced veganism, citing concern over his health and "environmental ethics." (source) Singer Alanis Morissette claimed to be a vegan - then clarified that she was "80 percent vegan" - for health reasons. The liberal MSNBC commentator Al Sharpton told Oprah Winfrey that he went vegan and plunged from 305 pounds to 135 pounds (he actually looks too gaunt, in my opinion) as a result of an exercise regimen and a "sugar free vegan diet." (source)

Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson recently boasted of 40-pound weight loss from veganism (to his credit, Jackson also cited the film Forks Over Knives as an influence, and has mentioned cruelty to animals as a motivating factor in his decision).

With the exception of Jackson, all of these vegan celebs have something in common: Animals aren't really on their radars.

There are a fair number of vegan celebs who put animals front and center in their justifications for being vegan: Woody Harrelson, Natalie Portman, Joaquin Phoenix, Russell Brand, Casey Affleck, Olivia Wilde, Ellen DeGeneres, Emily Deschanel, Russell Simmons, James Cromwell, the list goes on. These celebrities have been especially laudable in their unwavering commitment to the animals.

But the question arises: Are celebrities who embrace veganism for reasons that have nothing to do with animals helping the cause?

I believe they are. Hear me out. Sure, they treat veganism as a "flavor of the month." It is also true they're misusing and abusing the word in a way that reduces it purely to a dietary term, rather than an ethical lifestyle (which it is). How does one be a 70 percent vegan? It's impossible! And yes, their lack of compassion, their refusal to even devote a single sentence to the suffering of sentient beings, is troubling.

However, on the flip side, at least the health-conscious vegan celebs who avoid the "a" word are choosing the right diet. Remember when the Atkins Diet was all the rage and people were eating meat from sunrise to sunset? Ew. That disturbing trend gave rise to the dreadful bacon-eating hipsters who are so abundant these days. You know the type? They have bacon on everything: sandwiches, deserts, salads, pasta - you name it, they top it with bacon. I won't go so far as to say, "There's no getting through to these people." I used to eat bacon. Obviously, someone got through to me.

But at least with someone starting a vegan diet for health reasons, even if they only plan to stick with it for 22 days, there is some hope that their commitment might become longer term (look at Al Gore, who only intended to become a vegan temporarily, and no anticipates that he'll be one for life).

Mark Bittman

And look at Mark Bittman, author of the VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 cookbook. Initially, Bittman wrote his cookbook to encourage healthier diets. He now constantly wrestles with issues of animal ethics, even if he himself hasn't fully taken the big plunge into permanent veganhood (is that a word?).

For good or ill, in our contemporary culture of celebrity, people pay close - one might even say obsessive - attention to celebs - right down to what they eat on a day-to-day basis. The "foodie" culture is huge in North America and other parts of the world right now. It is true that some high-profile advocates of a "vegan diet" have focused almost exclusively on its nutritional value instead of animals.

Yet all of this attention to veganism has actually helped legitimize it. It has moved veganism into the mainstream. Twenty years ago, veganism seemed extreme. Vegan options were hard to find in stores, even harder to locate on restaurant menus. All of that has changed over the course of the last decade. Veganism has made a great leap forward.

So what do we make of a fur coat wearing "vegan" like J-Lo? Hey, she's reaching a far bigger audience than I am with this little blog mine. She could be extolling the virtues of putting bacon on everything. She's not. Other people will try veganism because she's doing it. And maybe one of those people will open his or her eyes to the suffering of our fellow sentient beings. Hell, is it naive or foolish to expect that one convert might even be J-Lo herself?

Whoever it is that's awakened, that is one more person in the trenches with us. One more light has gone on. That's one more man or woman who understands that what happens to non-human animals actually matters a great deal to us, both as individuals and as an entire species.

Back After a Hiatus to Blog as Much as I Can..

You may have noticed that I disappeared for a while. Judging from my last Blog post - in August 2013 - it has been nearly a year.

Good blogging is not easy. It requires a lot of time and thought and energy. I've been writing a lot over the past year. Alas, not much of it has been about animals. I've turned my attention to my fiction, which has, I'm pleased to say, really taken off.

But the plight of animals haunts me. Specifically, the horrific treatment of animals by human beings continues to vex me. I can't outrun it. I can't get away from it. I lose sleep over the treatment of animals.

One of the reasons I stopped blogging last year is because so much of what I blog about here is tragic. I'd always make an effort to post something happy, but in the end - let's face it - the giant historical record of human interaction with animals has been, on the whole, one filled with ghastly nightmares and unspeakable horror shows, and acts of kindness have been drops of water in the ocean, and grains of sand on the beach.

To deny this is to deny an essential truth about human beings. Whatever good comes of the human species, it is offset by giant factories and huge storage warehouses and massive tanker ships full of cruelty. There is no escaping human sadism when it comes to animals.

Those of us who are sensitive souls can do one of two things. We can run away from it, or try to shield ourselves from it.

Or we can reluctantly march into battle, a battle we'll lose, but one we ought nevertheless to fight, against our fellow human beings who are inflicting this cruelty.

Part of the battle, it seems to me, is to show the positive and healthy ways in which a growing number of human beings are interacting with animals in this day and age.

But it would be a lie - a big lie - to emphasize these happy interactions at the expense of more disturbing truths.

I'll blog as much as I can about animals, as much as my psyche and stomach and soul will allow. Blogging is one way to fight against the cruelty. Another is to educate ourselves. And still another is to take some sort of action to help the animals. Even little steps, small things, make a big difference.

I like to hope things are changing, moving in a positive direction. I'm not always sure of it. But I am sure of one thing. I want to return to the march to sanity. Because when I take part in it, I feel better. I feel engaged in something bigger than myself. Fighting for animals is one of the few things that makes me feel fully human again.

A Gore-Free Video That Says It All

Please show this to your friends and family who are meat eaters. It is a gore-free video. It shows a cow shedding tears over the horrific fate he is about to experience. I quote from the wonderful Facebook page Animal Rights Activist:

This 34 second footage clearly shows a beautiful, sweet cow shedding tears in the seconds before slaughter. There's no blood or guts in this film so if you eat meat, it's something you can watch. Animals have the same feelings and desires we do. They long for life and love their children. They know love and feel pain, suffering, sadness and terror... just like we do. Reconnect your heart to life and respect for everyone we share this planet with. It just makes no sense to savagely destroy an innocent creature for 20 minutes of taste bud pleasure. We hope you will watch and realize that no amount of personal pleasure is worth taking an innocent life over.

There is no reason to continue this brutality and violence. It is time to end the Dark Ages that animals have been subjected to for so long. The only way possible to bring an end to these tragedies is to go vegan. How many millions - ultimately billions - of cows and pigs and chickens have wept as their lives have been violently taken away from them? This is mass murder on a gargantuan scale. The question is: Are we going to allow it to continue? Or are we going to move on to the next phase of our evolution and insist on treating animals with respect and dignity, and not as commodities?

The decision rests with humanity.

Words of Wisdom

"I had never seen a slaughterhouse before. My blood ran cold. This didn't just turn me into a vegetarian. It turned me into a genuinely compassionate human being. I ultimately became vegan when I aw what happens to millions of chickens - their beak burned off, millions of tiny male chicks being hurled to their death into grinders, premature calves being deliberately induced and being killed by crushing to death. It is a so tiresome to hear the hideous lies and self delusion from those who profit from this ghastly trade. I am a vegan because I love life in all its forms."

- Philip Wollen

Five Reasons for Animal Rights Activists to be Hopeful

It occurred to me that my post yesterday contained some pessimistic observations about the human race. Whenever this blog features despairing observations, I like to counter with a more hopeful follow-up. There are plenty of reasons why Animal Rights advocates should be hopeful.

Here are five!

1. In the Flushing section of New York's Queens borough, Public School 244 (pictured right) has gone vegan! All of its meals are now completely free of animal products. This occurred in response to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's noble attempts to make New York City a more health-conscious metropolis. And guess what? Apparently the switch has been a big hit with the kids! As one 9-year-old put it: "This is good. I'm enjoying that it didn't have a lot of salt in it." In addition to P.S. 244 going vegan, more than a thousand local schools - at Bloomberg's urging - have switched to whole grain breads and pastas and now have salad bars. (Source)

2. The number of vegans in the United States is on the rise! A study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group in 2012 found that the number of Americans identifying themselves as vegans was 2.5%, a sharp increase from the 1% of self-identifying vegans in 2009. In other words, in that three-year period, the number of vegans in the United States more than doubled! As I've said on this blog many times before: Our numbers are growing all the time! (Source)

3. On May 1, Vietnam Airlines stopped shipping primates for research purposes. "Even though Vietnam Airlines has never been in breach of international regulations governing the transportation of live animals," a V.A. statement said, "we decided to stop transporting primates destined for experimental purposes from May 1, 2013. The relevant operation manual shall be deployed system wide by Vietnam Airlines to ensure this decision." (Source)

4. Here in Canada, every major grocery chain in the country has now pledged to stop buying pork from farms that use gestation crates. This is a huge breakthrough victory that shows how much clout animal rights activists have in this country. As Twyla Francois of Mercy for Animals Canada quite rightly stated: "We are pleased that retailers have finally listened to their ethically-minded customers and are taking action to end the abusive practice of confining pigs in tiny metal crates so small the animals cannot even turn around, walk or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives." Moreover, restaurant chains such as McDonalds and Tim Horton's have also pledged to no longer purchase from farms that use gestation crates. (Source)

5. More encouraging news from Canada: In April, the General Court of the European Union, based in Luxembourg, upheld a three-year-old ban on seal products from Canada and Norway. This policy has inflicted tremendous damage on one of this country's most vicious rackets, our sorry equivalent of the Latin American cocaine trade. Despite the ban, this gruesome, vicious, bloodthirsty seal hunt continues. More than 70,000 seals were murdered in 2012, and that number jumped to 76,000 in this season. Dismayed by the E.U.'s decision, a representative from the Ottawa-based Seals and Sealing Network issued a statement: "It's bad news for the seal industry, but it's even worse news for other industries. If they're starting to ban products based on so-called moral issues, then who's next? Is it lobster because boil them? Beef? Pork?"

NOW THERE'S A GREAT IDEA!

Must-See Video: Father Frank Mann's Conversion to Veganism

Do yourself a favour: Check out Father Frank Mann reflecting on why he converted to veganism. It's one of the most eloquent and moving testimonies I've ever heard. And it shows what many of us have believed all along: That veganism and animal rights are an essential part of our spirituality and ability to feel empathy with all living beings.

Please check it out, and share it with others you know. You'll be glad you did!

Great Advice on Maintaining a Healthy Vegan Diet

Here is chef and health counselor Alex Jamieson, who has so many great ideas about maintaining a healthy vegan diet. In this video, she gives terrific vegan tips, talks about her vegan cookbooks and mentions some of her favorite vegan recipes.

If you aren't familiar with Jamieson's work, check out here Website here. She was a health advisor to Morgan (Super Size Me!) Spurlock when he was trying to detoxify from his horrifying all-McDonald's diet. As she mentions in this video, the key to success with the vegan diet is variety. She mentions an excellent point - how easy it is for vegans to eat unhealthy processed foods (and how hard it is for those vegans to lose weight).

I'm one of those vegans who pops a few too many Oreos and potato chips. I could stand to lay off that stuff for a little while. I plan to follow Jamieson's advice in the weeks and months ahead. By eating more natural foods ("whole foods," as she calls them), we will all feel better, lose weight, and really gain great benefits from a vegan diet.

Check out this video if you get a chance!

A Great Image...

... with words worth remembering. Have a look:

Jonathan Safran Foer, why hast thou forsaken us?

Facebook and the blogosphere are all aflutter with commentary about Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the bestseller Eating Animals, becoming a spokesperson for Buyingpoultry.com, a website that promotes the consumption of "humane and sustainable poultry."

For those who haven't read Eating Animals (a book I've mentioned several times on this blog), it's Safran Foer's nonfiction account of the harsh treatment of animals in factory farms and a damning indictment of the food industry. It has been extremely influential in winning people over to veganism, including actress Natalie Portman, who, in 2009, said the book converted her to a vegan lifestyle. At the time, she wrote:

I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just "This is tasty, and that's why I do it." He posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if it's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it). 

Jonathan Safran Foer, at the time he wrote Eating Animals (2009).

Eating Animals is a powerful book. It's not the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Animal Rights Movement (that book hasn't been written yet). But it's persuasive and beautifully written, nonetheless, and it skilfully advances all kinds of sound reasons for adopting a vegan lifestyle, including arguments having to do with ethics, sustainability, the environment and freeing up resources to help feed the hungry around the world. Safran Foer, a young novelist who gained fame as one of the leading Young Turks in the literary world (no small feat in an industry characterized by declining sales and so hard to break into), is a hell of a writer, and he choses each word with passion and conviction.

When Safran Foer endorsed Buyingpoultry.com, which promotes "humane meat" and accountability in the poultry industry (an industry sorely in need of accountability), some vegans and animal rights activists felt deeply betrayed. Safran Foer's promo endorsing Buyingpoultry.com just went up on YouTube the other day (see it above or here). One particularly perceptive critique of Safran Foer's came from one of my very favorite blogs, the Veganomaly. The author described an unforgettable moment when she crossed a line after reading Safran Foer's account:

Several years ago, at about 4AM I got to the part in ‘Eating Animals’ where he shares the stories of the pregnant cows whose calves are discovered inside of them at slaughterhouses. I’m not going to go into more detail here, because it’s the single most upsetting animal-related thing I’ve ever read. Maybe it was being alone in my dimly lit room with an angry rain pounding on the roof. Maybe it’s the way that the dark and the quiet disrobe all the defenses you cloak yourself in during the day. I found myself so sickened, the kind that makes it impossible to think of anything but the suffering you just has described to you. The room spins, your heart unable to take such pain. I remember thinking “We’re told as children that monsters don’t exist, but I’ll bet no one ever asked a farmed animal”. That night, Safran Foer’s work gutted me. A part of me truly died and in doing so, provided a thick, impenetrable layer of emotional cement over my decision to live as a vegan for the rest of my life. (Source) 

The blogger went on to express her disappointment in Safran Foer, asking whether he'd become "nothing more than a particularly clever puppet for the foodies." Foodies, of course, are people like Michael Pollan and other defenders of "happy meat" and "humane omnivorism." They think that it is possible for human beings to engage in "sustainable" production and consumption of animal products in a way that is ultimately compassionate and shows deep respect for animals.

The blogger's discouragement is understandable. At the same time, as the blogger points out, Safran Foer never embraced veganism and did not consider himself a spokesperson for the lifestyle, despite his book winning over numerous converts. Be that as it may, it is hard to comprehend why someone so deeply aware of the suffering, pain and death that millions of animals endure on a daily basis could defend the so-called "ethical" use of animal products.

We can drive ourself crazy asking questions. Did Safran Foer really believe - deep down inside - what he wrote in Eating Animals? Was this just a cynical ploy by a wunderkind who clearly relishes attention to get even more attention? Does his rejection of veganism somehow negate what he writes?

For answers to these questions, maybe we should look at another author, Upton Sinclair, who lived before the emergence of the modern animal rights and vegan movements. His book, The Jungle, was a horrifying indictment of the meatpacking industry, with some famous passages about the inhumane slaughter of pigs. Many online sources claim Sinclair was a vegetarian. I tried to verify this in a biography about Sinclair by my friend and colleague Kevin Mattson. Mattson mentions Sinclair embracing vegetarianism in 1909 after a visit to Harvey Kellogg's sanitarium (Kellogg was the famous cereal maker), but there is no evidence that Sinclair was a vegetarian his whole life. And there is zero evidence that he was a vegan.

Yet The Jungle stands as a great monument that no only critiques the excesses of Gilded Age capitalism, but severely denounces the harsh treatment of animals more passionately than any other classic work of literature that I know of. It has been said (and maybe this is apocryphal) that Teddy Roosevelt promptly became a vegetarian after reading it (although T.R. didn't seem to abandon hunting). Certainly, it moved a lot of people in the early 20th Century to reject eating meat, which happened regardless of Sinclair's own personal diet.

Today, animal rights activists often quote the pig slaughtering scene from The Jungle (I've included it here on my blog) to capture the brutal essence of the slaughterhouse experience. Certainly, Sinclair was no vegan. Nor were a lot of the historical figures that we vegans quote for inspiration. I even found out the other day the other day that a famous Alice Walker quote I often use about animal rights - "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men" - was actually not her opinion, but her summary of a book she was reviewing, and that animal rights people have been quoting her out of context all these years (she's not a vegan; she's not even a vegetarian). Yet Walker's words, even quoted out of context, leave an indelible impression on people who are quietly contemplating the possibility of going vegan.

I bring up these things to make a point. Safran Foer isn't a vegan, that's clear. But his book - while not a masterpiece - is still a damn good one, and with his high profile, he's able to spread his message to a very large audience, one most of us could never hope to reach. It is too bad he doesn't necessarily practice what he preaches. Alas, a lot of writers do not. What is more important is that he has built a monument, in the form of a book, that will touch countless readers for generations to come, and continue to convert a lot of people to veganism. Of how many people can that be said?

Why I Can't Be Vegan Anymore

Don't worry. I'm not giving up on veganism. Neither is the maker of this video, nicknamed Richie Fruitbat. It's an excellent video that refutes some of the myths spread around by former vegans who go back to their omnivore ways.

There is a lot of wisdom in this video. I'm not a raw food vegan like Richie (I don't think I can go quite that far), but I really like what he does with this video and - as he points out - what he says is applicable to raw food vegans and regular vegans alike.

Check out this video, if you get a moment. It's insightful and really good at refuting the anti-vegan myths.

Words of Wisdom

Watching Omnivores Struggle

The slippery slope.

It's interesting to watch omnivores grappling with their food choices. I just finished reading an article in the Toronto Star defending meat eating. "Why Consuming Animals May Be the Right Thing to Do," said the headline.

Echoing a New York Times contest in March asking readers to defend meat consumption in 600 words or less (which, not surprisingly, the big food industry/factory farm shill Temple Grandin entered), the Star published a litany of familiar excuses justifying the act of killing animals and then devouring them.

Author and New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik led the charge: "All animals die. The choice for a pig is not between painful death and perpetual life, but between one death and some other. If we ate only animals that died naturally, then could there be any rational objection to our eating them - to eating their flesh in celebration of their life rather than burying it to rot or merely burning it?"

Toronto butcher Stephen Alexander, a big supporter of buying local, "humanely" raised meat, is clearly wrestling with the ethics of meat eating when he tells the Star: "You're killing them to live, you're killing them because you enjoy meat and it's good for you. But at the end of the day, there is the cold, hard truth that you're killing animals to eat their meat.... You have to justify it to yourself and that's all there is to it."

"Ethics are an individual choice," reasoned Heather Travis, who handles public relations for Canada Beef Inc., which represents 83,000 farming families here in Canada. Travis said her organization "strongly advocates beef as part of a balanced diet," and warned that staying healthy on a meat-free diet "can be trickier if you eliminate animal protein sources from your diet."

The temptation is great to pick apart these arguments one by one, and most intelligent vegans would be able to dance circles around these people in a debate.

But to me the most interesting element of all of these defenses of meat eating is the extent to which omnivores feel the need these days to justify the act. Five years ago, when I was an omnivore, I never felt any need to defend my choices. I liked meat. I ate it. End of story.

Today, five years later, more and more people are either going vegan, or feeling the need to justify and explain their food choices. I run into thoughtful omnivores all the time who are really - really - struggling with consuming animal products. Increasingly, it's getting so only an over-the-top fruit loop like Ted Nugent gives absolutely no thought whatsoever to chowing down on the flesh of sentient beings.

Famous food journalist Mark Bittman.

For the rest of us, it's a different story. I personally think the New York Times' challenge - which triggered an avalanche of responses from across the country - was a useful exercise in getting omnivores to think about why they do what they do.

A decade ago, the renowned and widely respected New York Times food journalist Mark Bittman gave little or no thought to the animals he was cooking (by his own admission). But in recent years, Bittman has developed profound misgivings about eating animals. These days, he believes that "20 or at most 50 years from now, those of us still alive will express incredulity at the way we once treated animals destined to become food." (Source)

Gordon Ramsay and friend. 

Bittman is not alone. Not long ago, famous TV chef Gordon Ramsay watched a hidden camera video of the inside of a factory farm (in this case, a pig facility). Seeing the male pigs being castrated without any anesthesia, sows chewing nervously on bars, and pigs shrieking in horror during the last days of their short lives, Ramsay was visibly shaken - and disgusted - by what he witnessed. Of course, Ramsay didn't go vegan. But the treatment of animals, an issue that for the longest time was never on his radar, has entered into his consciousness.

Bittman has been much more aggressive in moving away from cooking animal products than Ramsay. In fact, Bittman gained fame for his Vegan Until 6 diet, spotlighted in his book Food Matters, that advocated going vegan before dinnertime for improved health. Yet what began for Bittman as a health issue keeps coming back to the more significant matter of animals and their suffering. He can't get away from the issue. These days, in fact, he keeps bringing it up. It haunts him, just as it haunts any thoughtful omnivore. And this trend is working its way into corporate America. Burger King made headlines in late April when the chain announced it will switch to cage-free eggs and pork by 2017. Other fast food restaurants are likely follow.

Pigs in a factory farm. Many omnivores are troubled
by what's happening in the food industry. 

We vegans tend to be somewhat dismissive toward omnivores who are struggling with their food choices. But it's impossible to overemphasize the importance of this development, because it's a very new one. And it's becoming more and more widespread. Recently, I went on a local radio station to talk about these very issues on a program about farming and agriculture.  I could see the host, himself an omnivore and advocate of what he called "humane" livestock farming, was also grappling with these same issues. He and I shared a sense of uneasiness with the growth of big, corporate factory farms. A lot of omnivores, having watched documentaries like Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives, are experiencing these same feelings. I believe Bittman is absolutely correct, that  "20 or at most 50 years from now, those of us still alive will express incredulity at the way we once treated animals destined to become food." This is not a Pollyannaish notion. It's a reflection of the changing reality of our times.

A growing number of omnivores are troubled by their actions, and the increasing defensiveness of some is an outgrowth of a moment in history when the animal rights movement is gaining traction around the world. For those of us who feel passionately about animals and their rights, this shift may seem too slow and way overdue in coming. But it is happening, little by little, and it offers a glimmer of hope.

What More Needs To Be Said?

If an image is worth a thousand words, this one is surely worth millions!

A Great Graphic From Our Comrades in Australia

What else is left to add?

More Reasons to Go Vegan (as if you need any)...

Sorry for the long hiatus. I took most of the month of May off of blogging to attend to other writing that I had to finish. I'm back in the saddle again, though, and posting this compelling video that offers more reasons to go vegan. Have a look. The facts speak for themselves.

But the number one reason for going vegan - above health reasons, above economic and environmental reasons, above the fact that vegan food is actually damn good - is for the animals. Murdering them or using them for any purpose is immoral. Period. End of story.

Well, maybe it's not the end of the story, exactly. There are other reasons to go vegan. Watch this video and find out some of them. But remember: Number One Reason = The Animals.

A Global Vegan Diet Will Help Save the World - So says the United Nations

A recent report from the United Nation's International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management is calling for a global change to a vegan diet. Such a shift, if done on a worldwide scale, the report claims, will greatly reduce the disastrous impacts of climate change, world hunger and fuel shortages.

The report estimates that meat and dairy production account for 70 percent of the earth's freshwater consumption, 38 percent of land use and 19 percent of global greenhouse emissions. "A substantial reduction of impacts," says the report, "would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

In a world rapidly moving toward a population of 9.1 billion (by 2050), a global vegan diet is one of the major changes that will help make such growth sustainable.

It will also improve life greatly for animals. Imagine what a Kafkaesque nightmare it will be for factory farm animals if the world's population reaches 9.1 billion but the world's inhabitants refuse to change their omnivore diets.

This U.N. report provides a glimmer of hope. Historically, the U.N. has made plenty of mistakes. It does not get everything right.

But on the issue of veganism, this report by the U.N. comes at the perfect time. Veganism is moving from the fringe to the mainstream. And we need all the help we can get to make veganism seem less extreme and more acceptable. This U.N. report can only help a great deal in that regard. (Source.)

Hallelujah! Decent Vegan Ice "Cream" Has Arrived!

Did you hear the latest on the vegan food front? There is a new vegan ice cream store in Los Angeles called Kind Cream. (Source) Apparently, they have a great selection of dairy-free vegan ice creams. An L.A. vegan Blogger reports: "I had the Mint Chocolate Chip with hot fudge and it was pretty yummy." Some vegans are up in arms because a few of the Kind Cream flavours are made with honey. Which prompted the aforementioned vegan Blogger to lament that "the vegan world is full of just as many whiney assholes as every other facet of society." That's neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned. I'm just thrilled to hear that there's a decent kind of vegan ice cream out there. Most of the non-dairy ice creams I've tasted up till now suck. We can only hope that Kind Cream spreads across North America like wildfire.