Last week I asked esteemed journalist and agricultural history professor James McWilliams to write an open letter to the Northwest Indiana Times regarding their sensationalized coverage of the new Pig READ ON
Animal Products and Culture
Pig Adventure Is a Misadventure: McWilliams’ Open Letter to Fair Oaks Farms
Overcoming Our ‘Egg-Industry’ View of Chickens
As someone who rescues, raises and advocates on behalf of chickens, one of the biggest challenges I face is getting people to see the chicken BEFORE the egg. Even many READ ON
Deconstructing the Dairy Is Natural Myth in 14 Steps
The dairy industry has most people believing that cow’s milk, and the cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream and other products derived from it, are “natural” for us to consume. But READ ON
Meet Your ‘Responsibly-Raised’ Meat
Humane washing takes many forms. On the smallest micro level, it sometimes crops up in your local farmer’s market. That’s where I found a new vendor in between the mushroom READ ON
“I Like Them To Stay Standing Up”: Why Luiz Antonio Won’t Eat Animals
When I saw this video, I cried. Apparently I’m not the only one; every other comment I’ve seen from viewers expresses the same reaction. In the video, a toddler in READ ON
Michael Pollan Talks Trash about Chickens Just Like Big Ag He Denounces
“Their brains have been bred right out of them, they’re really nasty and stupid.” That’s what Michael Pollan had to say in a recent interview in Smithsonian about chickens like READ ON
Charles Ramsey, Hero to Kidnap Victims, Rewarded with Lifetime Supply of Kidnap Victims
Charles Ramsey, the internet sensation heralded as a hero for helping to rescue three Cleveland women who were kidnapped, raped and imprisoned for a decade, has earned his reward: an READ ON
Compassionate Poison Gas for Chickens in Europe
While a utilitarian might make a valid case for why we should do whatever we can to reduce the suffering of animals right now, such a position ignores the deeper, READ ON
Dalai Lama to Speak at Kentucky Fried Chicken YUM! Center in Louisville
When we first heard about the Dalai Lama event in Louisville, what struck us most was the venue where his teachings on “Engaging Compassion” would be held: the Kentucky Fried READ ON
The Lone Goat Amongst Our Shopping for Things
While visiting a busy garden center today, I almost walked right past this goat who was watching me and everyone else intently. His eyes pleaded with us for attention, but READ ON
The Backyard Chess Game: Dogs, Chickens and Egg Fixations
Spend enough time reading about the quotidian tribulations of poultry proprietors and you quickly learn about the centrality of violence in chicken ownership. In point of fact the chickens, so READ ON
News Alert: Oakland Sausages Adulterated with Compassion
In the latest labeling scandal to rock the foodie world, an Oakland-based restaurant is enduring a Yelp-inspired pile-on for failing to reveal that trace amounts of compassion were discovered in READ ON
Anxieties Rising in Meat Industry as Animal Activism’s Perceived Threat Looms Large
The 2013 annual stakeholder’s meeting for the Animal Agriculture Alliance in May is entitled “Activists at the Door: Protecting Animals, Farms, Food & Consumer Confidence.” The expansive Animal Rights section READ ON
This Story of One Pig Represents the Seed of Factory Farming
There is something incredibly disturbing to me about the story behind this image. Apparently there is a tradition in Italy, as explained to me by my Italian Facebook friend and READ ON
The Milk of Human Unkindness: Betraying Children With Every Glass
“The very saddest sound in all my memory was burned into my awareness at age five on my uncle’s dairy farm in Wisconsin. A cow had given birth to a READ ON
Meet Your Meat Spin Doctors
Meet Chicago-based Rita Jane Gabbett, Executive Editor of Meatingplace.com, a meat industry news site. In her mission statement about the site, Gabbett seems to acknowledge that an industry that systematically READ ON
When Using the Word ‘Propaganda’ Becomes a Form of Projection
It strikes me as the height of irony that the word propaganda, which has its origins in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia to describe the “PR” campaigns of these violent READ ON
How We Teach Children a Separate Morality for Food Animals
In an eye-opening new research paper called The Conceptual Separation of Food and Animals in Childhood, University of Bristol researchers Kate Stewart and Matthew Cole explore how we, as a READ ON
The Paleo Diet: A Parody of History, Science, Ethics and Common Sense
Instead of thinking about how we were meant to eat, as if we were frozen in time or detached from the world around us, wouldn’t it make more sense to READ ON
No More Mother’s Tears over Spilled Milk or Cracked Eggs
I have a heartwarming story to share with you about my mother Elisa who just got over her doubts about baking without eggs! This was no small hurdle for her, READ ON
