In our postcolonial world, the high consumption of animal products is now related to aggressive Western marketing, heavily subsidized animal agriculture in Western countries that gluts global markets, exploitative and often violently enforced use of land and resources outside of the West (such as the destruction of the Amazon rainforest for beef production), forced removal of Indigenous communities, predatory lending and capitalist ventures led by global financial entities such as the World Bank, and increased consumer power made possible by globalization. Diets heavy in animal products are not culturally diverse; they are products of Western imperialism. The global majority cannot digest lactose (dairy) beyond the age of weaning (a normal process among mammals), and, as animal flesh is expensive to produce or shunned in certain spiritual practices, traditional diets of the world have been based in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and pulses. Plant-based diets are more cost efficient, sustainable, and healthful, accounting for their foundational and ubiquitous presence across almost of the world’s cultures.
Continue readingEating Vegan vs. Being Vegan: The Vegan Society and Depoliticized Capitalist Campaigning
The Only Vegan in the Department: Science, Anti-Veganism, and the Illusion of Objectivity
Weber reminds us that reality is more than the material–it is also found in shared subjective meanings. Objectivity, knowledge, facts, and truth are subsequently vulnerable to political maneuvering. If no science is value-free, what values will we apply? Values of violence or values of justice?
Continue readingCan We “Have Our Cow and Eat Her, Too?”
The weaponization fo science and naturalism to rank the worth of marginalized groups, dictate their moral worth, and control their lives (usually in highly exploitative ways) is a classic project of Western, white supremacist patriarchal colonial conquest. The entitlement to other living beings, both in reality and symbolically, should be challenged.
Continue readingHow Do I Positively Engage My Non-Vegan Family?
Is It Vegan to Eat Mock Meats?
If we’re talking about mock meats that strongly resemble the corpses of other animals, okay, this is problematic in the context of a deeply speciesist society. However, if we are talking about chunks of protein that are shaped and flavored and don’t resemble anyone, then these are foods I’m not especially worried about.
Continue readingV-Rated: Sexualization as a Mechanism of Food Justice Depoliticization
Vegan Geographies in Ireland
The Troubles (Animals in Irish Society, Episode 5)
This episode discusses the persistence of animality in Irish Republicanism in the late 19th century and the 20th-century protests under British occupation during the Troubles. While Britain applied animality to Irish rebels as a measure of control, the Irish would strategically adopt animality as an illustration of their oppression. The episode also discusses some mid-20th century vegan activists and their response to civil rights injustices of the era.
Continue readingThe Great Famine (Animals in Irish Society, Episode 4)
Ireland has endured a number of colonialization attempts, including that of the Vikings, the Christians, and the Normans. However, British colonization in the 16th and 17th centuries was the most arresting and long lasting, dramatically manipulating property use, agricultural practices, and quality of life for humans and other animals alike. This episode explores the injection of industrialized “meat” and dairy production in the Irish colony and its implications for Irish wellbeing, culminating in the disastrous famines of the 1800s.
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