July 2010
41 posts
"Vegan Mainstream" Names Lierre Keith the #8 Great... →
Alicia Silverstone and mad cowboy Howard Liman are ranked higher than the author of the anti-veganism book The Vegetarian Myth, but Lierre Keith has apparently done more for veganism than T. Colin Campbell:
Lierre Keith is an author and vegan activist. She has written “The Vegetarian Myth” which explains the importance of sustainability, as well as her political beliefs. She has spent twenty...
1 tag
Interview With an Ex-Vegan: Tovar Cerulli
Tovar Cerulli is an ex-vegan turned hunter who writes the blog A Mindful Carnivore. But isn’t “mindful carnivore” a contradiction in terms, like… “Ethical Butcher”?
Even some meat eaters see hunting as barbaric, but it doesn’t take much time on Cerulli’s blog to figure out that he didn’t give up compassion and thoughtfulness when he left...
1 tag
"The China Study vs the China Study" →
Another critique of The China Study, this one from Dr. Michael Eades.
1 tag
Vegans React: Arson in the Name of Animals
Last week, agents of the USA (United Speciesists of America) captured the fire-happy animal liberator ALF Lone Wolf, aka Walter Bond. His neck tattoo — “Vegan” — already marked him as a deviant flesh-abstainer in our bloodthirsty world, but it was his alleged arson against a sheepskin factory, leather factory and restaurant that served fois gras that gave us an excuse to...
1 tag
"Vitamin B12 Supplements: How Much is Enough?" →
“The Vegan Dietitian” Virginia Messina comments on a study showing that most vegans are deficient in B12 and disses The China Study for downplaying the need for vegans to supplement.
1 tag
“Ultimately we should be aiming to abolish words like ‘vegetarian’...”
– John Davis
The News Hates Veganism for a Week
There were a lot of anti-veganism, or at least semi-anti-veganism articles in the news this week:
Steak or Veggie Burger: Which is Greener? (7/19, Mother Jones)
Bacon Lovers Vs. Soy Huggers: The Smackdown (7/19, Mother Jones)
Veggieworld: Why eating greens won’t save the planet (7/20, New Scientist)
When Veganism is an Eating Disorder (7/22, The Daily Beast)
Pantry Raid: Vegan...
Speciesist Society Ensnares "Lone Wolf," Animal... →
“Lone Wolf” — the pyro-maniacal animal liberator who endeared himself to Peter Young of Voice of the Voiceless by setting fire to a sheepskin factory, leather factory and a restaurant that served fois gras — has allegedly been caught. The animal kingdom is wiping away a collective tear this week now that Walter Bond is in jail:
Disturbing to think that anybody could be...
1 tag
“Another thing I hate: how all the New Yorkers are so very enchanted by the whole...”
– Megan at Vegansaurus!
Morality, Immorality and Grey Areas in Vegan...
Suppose your ailing grandfather musters the strength to cook his famous turkey and parsnip stew. As a kid you thought this was the best meal in the whole wide world. But that was before your eyes were opened to factory farming and the inalienable rights of brutes. You’ve explained veganism to your grandfather a hundred times, but he still doesn’t get it, as the bowl of rotting corpse...
Chinchilla Coats and the Pregan Paradox
These women are wearing matching chinchilla coats which they all bought at the same store two months ago. It’s hard to imagine anything more immoral than wearing the peeled-off skin of sentient beings as a fashion statement, yet for one woman the coat is moral, for another it is in a grey area, and only for the third is it pure evil. Get ready for some intricacies in vegan...
1 tag
The China Study Debate Rages On. Let The Best... →
T. Colin Campbell and ex-vegan raw foodist Denise Minger are still struggling to reach an agreement over Campbell’s conclusions in The China Study. Now Campbell has posted a response to Denise’s response to his response to her critique. And T.’s son T. Jr. has chimed in too.
1 tag
“I went raw last December to sort of “put things in perspective.” I...”
– DoctorClockwork
"Animal Advocacy Leaders Hall of Fail" →
My Face is on Fire’s Mylène Ouellet damns John Robbins to the animal advocacy leader “Hall of Fail” for commending small animal farms and singling out factory farms as the bad guys in a Huffington Post column.
As Ouellet explains, Robbins once wrote that there’s no such thing as a happy dairy cow. Now, apparently, Robbins has no objection to meat and dairy from small farms...
“If you want to know the truth, start with the United Nations report on...”
– Carolyn
2 tags
Denise Minger's Response to T. Colin Campbell's... →
1 tag
Yummy Vegan Yumminess (abridged)
Vegans like to use the word “yummy.” Though “yummy” hasn’t entered the vegan lexicon as something unique to animal-free living (the way that “compassionate” has), per capita they use it more than anybody else. My guess is that it’s to make vegan food sound more palatable than it actually is, but who knows, it could be any number of reasons, all of...
1 tag
“The animal rights movement is in complete turmoil with no great direction and a...”
– Negotiation is Over
1 tag
Has Vegan Abolitionist Gary L. Francione Started...
(Ex-?)Vegan abolitionist Gary L. Francione on May 31, 2010:
Hey, all: I am taking a leave of absence from Twitter while I do some other projects. Keep visiting www.abolitionistapproach.com. Go vegan.
May 31, 2010 11:05:32 AM CDT via web
Excuse me, a leave of absence from Twitter? Is it really so difficult to copy and paste 140-character references to the “moral...
1 tag
“Just as I will spend the rest of my life apologizing through my actions for...”
– Kayla
Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Remember Light Too →
File this one under the “plants have feelings too” category, an argument that simply does not work on vegans. And for good reason. Unless you can show that plants have an equal capacity for suffering as animals do and that meat eaters kill fewer plants than vegans, it’s not a solid case against self-restrictive morality-based eating.
Let’s face it, no article about how...
1 tag
Going Vegan at T. Colin Campbell's Behest
Cellulite Investigation: It’s hard to come across a reformed omnivore who doesn’t point to Campbell’s book as a motivating factor in his/her vegan adventure.
Tynan: I used to be a huge fan of meat. … Then one day my friend Hayden loaned me the book The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss...
"Should non-experts shut up? The skeptic's... →
Rationally Speaking:
The main problem, as I see it, is that while we can usually count on the process of peer criticism to check the research within a field for validity, I’m not sure we can count on it to check the validity of the field itself. I’m talking here about the methodology and the philosophical assumptions that underlie a field, the usually-unstated pillars on which...
1 tag
"Denise Minger Refutes the China Study Once and... →
Chris Masterjohn, who wrote the previous go-to case against The China Study, “The Truth About The China Study,” gives his approval to Denise Minger’s more rigorous version.
Now we’re just waiting on Anthony Colpo (“The China Study: More Vegan Nonsense!”), Monica Reinagel (“Diet and Breast Cancer: Is Dairy a Culprit?”), Ned Kock (“The China Study again: A multivariate...
1 tag
Lauragh: I’ve been reading John Robbins’ books and The China Study, which give evidence for the idea that dairy, like other animal protein, can be a contributing cause for cancer, heart disease, osteo, etc. I have two kids and am finding it difficult to know how to feed them. Why is this information not mainstream?
Nikalana: Lauragh, that info is not mainstream because the big dairy...
1 tag
“I also wanted to help vegans feel more understanding for the carnists in their...”
– Melanie Joy (author of An Introduction to Carnism)
1 tag
Myth: The American Dietetic Association Knows What...
I was browsing the American Dietetic Association’s site and saw this odd document called “Vegetarian Eating: Fact vs. Fiction” (PDF).
No doubt this is from the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, the official pro-vegetarian wing of the ADA (although all of the ADA supposedly agrees). But a couple of these “Myth” and “Fact” comparisons are...
1 tag
"Cutting out meat is not always the healthy... →
Or so says The Irish Times:
Meagher was advised to re-introduce meat into her diet after she developed pernicious anaemia in her 30s – a condition which manifested itself in chronic tiredness and constant migraines. Through her own work as a medical herbalist, she says she encounters clients who are not faring as well on a vegetarian diet.
“I’d estimate that about 40 per cent of the vegetarian...
1 tag
Should Vegans Hate Meat Eaters?
MartinV: It’s true that some vegans insult meat eaters and even veggies. But people who care about non-humans understandably feel rage at the way humans treat them. Just like most people would feel rage if they heard a rapist or pedophile describing how much they enjoy what they do. Denouncing wrongdoers and insulting them is very unlikely to get them to change their ways but it is very...
1 tag
T. Colin Campbell Responds to "The China Study:... →
2 tags
Veg*an Authorities On "The China Study: The Most...
Neal Barnard (Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine): “Everyone in the field of nutrition science stands on the shoulders of T. Colin Campbell, who is one of the giants in the field. This is one of the most important books about nutrition ever written — reading it may save your life.”
Dr. John McDougall: This landmark research shows that even small increases in the...
"The China Study Smackdown Roundup" →
So far I haven’t seen Denise Minger’s China Study critique mentioned on any vegan message boards or blogs. I can understand the lag with blogs, since vegan bloggers will have to write a decent retort if they’re going to mention it (unlike pro-meat bloggers who merely have to link to it with a few gloating words), but why aren’t vegan message boards talking about this?
1 tag
So I Married Someone Who Calls Me "Murderer"
İlk Bahar: Recently I’ve found myself in a dilemma. A dilemma that had made me feel so ill. I have met someone who is a Vegan. We are very similar and we seem to get along so fine. But the only difference that we have is that he is a Vegan and I am once or twice a week meat eater. …
What I don’t like about him is the way he is going on about it. He is very clear-cut about this...
1 tag
The China Study: Fact or Fallacy? →
When the question of veganism’s healthfulness arises, vegans will say either “The American Dietetic Association says the vegan diet is appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle” or “Read The China Study.” (Or, lately, “Vegetarian Adventists are in a better mood”). But Denise Minger potentially just kicked away that second crutch.
Denise is an ex-vegan...
1 tag
Vegans Vs. The World
AshleyKimball: I wake up in the morning sometimes and “forget” the world isn’t vegan. Then I go ANYWHERE and try to do my vegan stuff and get looked at cock-eyed, then remember how crappy the world can be.
Linda: Once your eyes are opened, the inhumanity humans display in the supermarket is overwhelming.
BCSH: For a long time I’ve wanted to create my own nation....
1 tag
Vegans of Color Ponders "Good Calories, Bad... →
Oshun at Vegans of Color thinks there may be some truth in Dr. Andrew Weil’s Huffington Post column exonorating saturated fat and deeming “refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars” the culprits in coronary heart disease and diabetes, as well the most likely dietary villains in regards to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease “and other chronic diseases of modern ...
“As an Ex-Vegan, I would like to personally apologize on behalf of all vegans and...”
– Zombies
1 tag
“Last November, while I was struggling with the question of spending Thanksgiving...”
– “Vegan For Life”
"Who Are the Real Animals?" →
The answer, according to Paul Bracchi at The Daily Mail: animal rights advocates who learn about a fox attack against two children… and side with the fox.
1 tag
Interview With an Ex-Vegan: Heather W. Rudúlph
Heather is the co-founder and editor of SirensMag, which is where I saw her article Lessons Learned from a Vegan Diet, about how her month-long experiment with veganism influenced her eating habits for the better. But what most caught my eye was her reference to having been raised vegan.
One of my great fears is to be reincarnated into a vegan family (of course that assumes I won’t come...
June 2010
21 posts
"Vegetarian friends find the perfect way to... →
This is a cute enough story if you don’t have a moral problem with eating meat. For vegans, though, there is something deeply offensive about these “vegetarian” friends eating Texas barbecue together before one of them moves to California.
When you see meat as rape and murder, a celebratory meal between friends looks more like Alex and his droogs bonding over a bit of...
"Cattle Feedlots Are Like a Holiday Inn" →
Erik Marcus from Vegan.com reacts kind of hilariously to an article by Ryan Andrews, a vegan body builder who went on a tour of a factory farm and came away telling the cattle men to “rock on.” It didn’t even take a small farm to impress this guy!
1 tag
“And for those ignorant folks who STILL think I’m bonkers and do not...”
– PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian, 2007
Diet Wars →
Melissa McEwen pointed me to this article about the current state of the food wars. It seems that the paleo diet and veganism are the main players in the battle over “American’s waistline.” Annoyingly for vegans, there is no reference to the ethics of meat eating, and the main vegan they interviewed likes to hunt for fun (he just eats his trail mix rather than his prey).
1 tag
“There are many reasons I’m vegan. And one is that I’m too damned lazy, and much...”
– Vegan.com
1 tag
When Veganism is Not Symbolic
A few weeks ago I wrote that veganism was nothing but a symbolic act. That inspired a retort from vegan dietitian Jack Norris, who quoted a paper called Expected Utility, Contributory Causation, and Vegetarianism. In it, Jason Gaverick Matheny (founder of New Harvest, a company developing lab-grown meat) argues in sciencey prose that a single vegetarian’s meat abstinence could lead to fewer...
“We could always become even better examples of a vegan. After 31 years, I still...”
– Veganism: A Truth Whose Time Has Come
Vegan Banned From Commenting on Huffington Post... →
I once compared “Rob,” the former serial commenter at my blog, to a vegan Ignatius Reilly, but that was before this entry by Dan Cudahy at Unpopular Vegan Essays:
Perhaps I was banned because the combination of the cogency of the arguments set forth in the above comments with how deeply prejudiced the moderators and average readers are at HuffPo generated such irrational...
1 tag
“The arson at the Sheepskin Factory in Denver was done in defense and retaliation...”
– ALF Lone Wolf