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I'm looking forward to the release of this book. Portland is one of the most progressive cities in America, and yet the local food culture is, by and large, unable to accept veganism as a culinary moral baseline. What we have instead is the sort of culture that decries factory farming but embraces the notion of raising and slaughtering organic heirloom turkeys, provided that you're buying these turkeys from a local farmer or a locally owned store.
Although I respect certain aspects of the locavore movement, I sometimes think that this feel-good approach to the omnivore diet lulls people into thinking that the politics of food begins and ends with human health and economic considerations and environmental considerations. But where is the concern for animal rights?
Small-scale animal agriculture may be less horrific than factory farming, but it is still morally problematic. In the end, there is no such thing as humane slaughter or, to use the preferred euphemism of omnivore apologists, humane "harvest" of animals.
The American Dietetic Association has a position paper in support of veganism as a healthful diet, so we know that we don't need to eat animals or their eggs and milk in order to be healthy. What we do need is a more enlightened look at our long-standing cultural predilection for eating animal-based foods.
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The Face on Your Plate: The Truth about Food by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
animaladvocate, February 26, 2009
I'm looking forward to the release of this book. Portland is one of the most progressive cities in America, and yet the local food culture is, by and large, unable to accept veganism as a culinary moral baseline. What we have instead is the sort of culture that decries factory farming but embraces the notion of raising and slaughtering organic heirloom turkeys, provided that you're buying these turkeys from a local farmer or a locally owned store.Although I respect certain aspects of the locavore movement, I sometimes think that this feel-good approach to the omnivore diet lulls people into thinking that the politics of food begins and ends with human health and economic considerations and environmental considerations. But where is the concern for animal rights?
Small-scale animal agriculture may be less horrific than factory farming, but it is still morally problematic. In the end, there is no such thing as humane slaughter or, to use the preferred euphemism of omnivore apologists, humane "harvest" of animals.
The American Dietetic Association has a position paper in support of veganism as a healthful diet, so we know that we don't need to eat animals or their eggs and milk in order to be healthy. What we do need is a more enlightened look at our long-standing cultural predilection for eating animal-based foods.
(25 of 35 readers found this comment helpful)