Vegan Food Groups

Roscoe and Surya

Statistics

This blog had 2,364 visits during April, which is an average of 78.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 111.3.

Humor

Statistics

This blog had 2,049 visits during March, which is an average of 66.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 102.4.

Animals

According to the Guardian, the new pope (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) took his name from Saint Francis of Assisi (depicted above), who is the patron saint of animals. This would be a wonderful opportunity for the Roman Catholic Church, which has 1.2 billion adherents, to drive home the point that animals are not resources for human use but fellow denizens of the planet, with lives, a good, and a dignity of their own.

Statistics

This blog had 2,196 visits during February, which is an average of 78.4 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 104.3.

Farmers

Many viewers were moved by Dodge's Super Bowl commercial "So God Made a Farmer." This rich parody, God Made a Factory Farmer, dispels the myth of the family farm in a humorous, but accurate way. Very funny and so true!

Statistics

This blog had 2,552 visits during January, which is an average of 82.3 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 85.2.

Killing Animals

Here is an essay by law professor Gary Francione.

How to Go Vegan

Here.

The Philosophy of Animal Rights

Mylan Engel Jr and Kathie Jenni are the authors of this book. Mylan is a longtime contributor to this blog. We met in graduate school at the University of Arizona in 1983.

Statistics

This blog had 2,533 visits during December, which is an average of 81.7 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 87.5.

Meat

Here is an interesting story about the evolutionary value of a meat-based diet.

Statistics

This blog had 2,797 visits during November, which is an average of 93.2 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 98.7.

Anniversary

I began this blog nine years ago today. (Here is the first post.) In that time, there have been 245,434 visits, which is an average of 27,270.4 visits per year and 74.6 visits per day. My posting has slowed considerably, but I hope the archive is of use to students (no plagiarism, please!) and anyone else who is interested in the moral status of nonhuman animals.

Statistics

This blog had 2,784 visits during October, which is an average of 89.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 89.2.

From the Mailbag

Dear Professor Burgess-Jackson,

I'm a great admirer of your animal ethics blog, which I've found to be an invaluable resource. I just wanted to share a link to Gary Francione's recent philosophy bites podcast. An interesting debate has taken place in the comments section regarding Francione's (mis)interpretation of Peter Singer—hope it will be of interest!

best regards,
Spencer Lo

Statistics

This blog had 2,378 visits during September, which is an average of 79.2 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 73.3.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

In “Where Cows Are Happy and Food Is Healthy” (column, Sept. 9), Nicholas D. Kristof describes “happy” cows that are loved “like children” by an organic dairy farmer. I applaud his recognition that cows are individual feeling beings that share with us the ability to experience happiness and contentment, fear and pain.

The article does, however, gloss over the undeniable fact that even cows with names produce milk only because they have recently given birth to calves who, if male, have been taken away from them. Consumers should consider that cows like Edie or Sophia are often fiercely protective, grieving mothers whose anguished cries the farmer undoubtedly heard as he removed their young.

The article also doesn’t mention the common practices of castrating male calves and amputating the horns of cows and calves, typically without any pain relief. Most cows are also forcibly impregnated, and the closely spaced pregnancies impose significant metabolic stress on cows.

Even at Bob Bansen’s dairy, food comes at the cost of animal welfare. It’s a safe bet that any glass of milk is from a grieving mother, named or unnamed, that will end up dying at the slaughterhouse.

INGRID E. NEWKIRK
President, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, Va., Sept. 10, 2012