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Tofurky and Fakin' Bacon and Boca Burgers and veggie dogs and all those foods some vegans dismiss as glorifying meat-eating are the animals' saving grace. ------- regardless of what we might consider the ideal, Americans do not want to eat vegetables, whole grains, or any of the other "health" foods some vegans continually and detrimentally equate with veganism. Every measure we could possibly use-what Americans are eating, where they are eating, even how they are cooking (opening jars and microwaving contents)-reveals that Americans aren't interested in eating better or healthier. And offering the average American a bell pepper instead of a veggie burger is a recipe for failure. And when their health is at stake, when lives are at stake, when the fate of the planet is at stake, failure is not an option.

"I received a question: isn't it better to be a non-vegan who rescues than one who does not? Yes. And it's better to be a serial murderer who does charity work on Thursdays than a serial murder who does no charity work at all. But that does not address the morality of murder or the inconsistency of murdering while doing charity work! My point is that those who rescue animals but who continue to eat them necessarily (even if not explicitly) regard the moral value of the animals they save as greater than the moral value of the ones they eat.  Please understand that I think that doing rescue work is fantastic and I have great respect for those who do it. (I have done TNR/fostering.) Many rescue folks work 24/7 helping unfortunate animals who will otherwise be killed in shelters or otherwise come to a horrible end. It is precisely because I do have a high regard for those who rescue/foster that I raise these issues. Rescue should not be just a matter of which animals are our "favorites." If someone were to rescue dogs but trapped and poisoned cats, we would surely find that odd. But the same analysis applies to those who do any sort of rescue work but then consume animal products.

"No mainstream group has adopted ethical veganism as its exclusive, or even a, central focus. An ethical vegan would not support any animal exploitation. Therefore, to say that ethical veganism is a SIC is to fail to understand the nature of ethical veganism or the fact that SICs rest on distinguishing among various forms of animal exploitation and promoting the notion that some forms are worse than others and, by implication, that other forms of exploitation are morally desirable or morally acceptable. One can, of course, use the expression "veganism" to apply only to diet in the sense that one who does not eat any animal products may be considered to have a vegan diet. This use of "vegan" is more restricted than the notion as I have developed it in my abolitionist theory. Promoting a vegan diet is more like an SIC than is promoting ethical veganism and the abolition of all animal use. But the practical reality is that if people rejected eating any animal products, we would see a rejection in all sorts of other animal use. The most significant form of animal exploitation--the form that "legitimizes" all the others--involves using animals as food. If you dislodge that use, you dislodge all others."

El pensamiento progresista va parejo a la disminución del consumo de carne. In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk.

Thanks to the 562 people who have signed the petition to FARM to ban H$U$ from the (so-called) "animal rights" conference. Please read the thoughtful comments. As expected, Paul Shapiro and the well-financed corporate butchers of H$U$ delivered a slick and sleazy presentation that bemoaned animal eating, a position not normally offered elsewhere, bemoaned pig confinement, while having a mass murderer of pigs employed as a director, and while conducting experiments on wild horses with drugs made from pig eggs, and bemoaning battery cages for chickens while promoting the egg industry's agenda for battery cages for chickens. Down with H$U$, the meat industry's self-appointed voice for "animal rights"!!! TAKE BACK THE ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FROM THE BUTCHERS OF H$U$!!! No one elected Wayne Pacelle and H$U$ to be a voice for animals or animal rights activists!!! Hey Hey Ho Ho, H$U$ has got to go!!! http://www.change.org/petitions/farm-farm-animal-rights-movement-ar-2012-ban-hsus-from-the-2012-animal-rights-conference