Vegetarianism/veganism
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James Rachels on vegetarianism: Vegetarianism is often regarded as an eccentric moral view, and it is assumed that a vegetarian must subscribe to principles at odds with common sense. But if this reasoning is sound, the opposite is true: the rule against causing unnecessary pain is the least eccentric of all moral principles, and that Read more
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Here is an interesting post on veganism that distinguishes what I would call “conditional” vegans from “unconditional” vegans. The former group opposes the current system of factory farming, but would, hypothetically at least, eat animals raised “humanely” and sustainably. They don’t think, in other words, that it’s inherently wrong for humans to use animals, just Read more
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One of the many puzzling things about this post from Brian Leiter on veganism is that it seems to take place in a world unrecognizable as our own. To wit: Let’s suppose, plausibly enough, that sentience (the ability to experience pleasure and pain) is a morally relevant characteristic. Since animals are sentient, it seems there Read more
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This piece from the Boston Globe looks at the tensions between an increasing sense of idealism among zoo officials–they want to treat their animals better and raise awareness of wildlife conservation–and the undeniable need to entertain zoos’ human visitors. James McWilliams writes on the recent report out of the UK which found that organic foods Read more
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A couple of posts providing some interesting criticisms of Michael Pollan’s views on meat eating, here and here. Pollan’s obviously doing more than nearly anyone to draw attention to the problems with our system of food production, including factory farming. And yet, he seems to have a soft spot for silly atavistic arguments against vegetarianism. Read more
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Lately I’ve been trying–with some success–to follow Mark Bittman‘s “vegan before six” (or vegan before dinner) regimen, with one qualification: only during the week. On the weekends I like to leave open the possibility of eggs for breakfast or a grilled cheese sandwich with fresh tomatoes from the farmers’ market for lunch, or what have Read more
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This article suggests that we’ll be forced–by resource and environmental constraints, among other things–to give up eating meat, except perhaps the very rich, and that this will lead to a rapid moral revolution in our treatment of animals. It’s an interesting argument and pretty much the reverse of how we usually imagine these things go: Read more
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Great post from Jim Henley commenting on this post at the Atlantic. Fisher, I think, overstates the case of how hard it is to be vegan. Not that I am one, but it certainly doesn’t require the heroic level of asceticism he suggests. I mean, I’m a mere lacto-ovo veggie, but, at this point, it’s Read more
A Thinking Reed 