Okay, so right now I'm reading The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. Singer is already well-known as one of the world's leading animal rights activists, and his book Animal Liberation (1975, I think) is viewed as a manifesto by many. As I near my third year as a vegetarian, I'm still not fully absorbed into the animal rights movement, but it's been more result of laziness and not having much money as opposed to any moral (or amoral) convictions.
Halfway through this book, I haven't found many eye-openers; I knew a majority of what's been covered already. But what has gotten to me is the vile treatment that many animals are forced to suffer--without being killed. Not only do Singer and Mason cover the slaughterhouse nightmares (which have been extensively covered already), but they pay particular attention to how food is labeled, transported, marketed, etc. While one may encounter "organic" and "free-range" labels on a variety of supermarket brands, the federal standards to which those corporations are held often aren't standards that actually provide farm animals with the adequate space and enivirons to live life as its respective species type would have it do if it were not in captivity.
Now, not being well-versed in what's been written on the subject (and I don't mean PETA pamphlets), I'm not in the position to compare the duo's work to that of others. I do think that the book's taking into account the detrimental environmental effects of factory farming is one that is often overlooked by mainstream vegetarians, though I don't say that to dismiss even in the slightest the abhorrence of animal cruelty.
More of an update on that when I finish the book...which, if I'm on schedule, should be by Friday. But with my track record of reading half of something and moving on...
I found my copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I wish I was well-read enough to proclaim it the best American novel ever written, but I'm not. Maybe one day, after I've absorbed Faulkner and Hemingway, and lots of others who I'm bound to learn about in the coming years.
Halfway through this book, I haven't found many eye-openers; I knew a majority of what's been covered already. But what has gotten to me is the vile treatment that many animals are forced to suffer--without being killed. Not only do Singer and Mason cover the slaughterhouse nightmares (which have been extensively covered already), but they pay particular attention to how food is labeled, transported, marketed, etc. While one may encounter "organic" and "free-range" labels on a variety of supermarket brands, the federal standards to which those corporations are held often aren't standards that actually provide farm animals with the adequate space and enivirons to live life as its respective species type would have it do if it were not in captivity.
Now, not being well-versed in what's been written on the subject (and I don't mean PETA pamphlets), I'm not in the position to compare the duo's work to that of others. I do think that the book's taking into account the detrimental environmental effects of factory farming is one that is often overlooked by mainstream vegetarians, though I don't say that to dismiss even in the slightest the abhorrence of animal cruelty.
More of an update on that when I finish the book...which, if I'm on schedule, should be by Friday. But with my track record of reading half of something and moving on...
I found my copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I wish I was well-read enough to proclaim it the best American novel ever written, but I'm not. Maybe one day, after I've absorbed Faulkner and Hemingway, and lots of others who I'm bound to learn about in the coming years.
posted by a monster-free tokyo at 6:11 PM
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