Thursday, January 4, 2007

New Years Resolutions

It's great to see so many people making a new year's resolution to adopt a vegetarian diet--they've decided to treat their bodies like temples, as recommended by all religions (well, other than the Opus Dei sect of Catholicism). First I saw this piece on the HuffingtonPost by Arianna's ex-husband:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-huffington/my-new-years-resolution_b_37286.html

And then this cartoon, by the popular cartoonist Carol Lay (Waylay):
http://www.buzzle.com/showImage.asp?image=17583.

Order the book yourself here:
http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

1 comment:

Syd Baumel said...

What stands out the most for me in Huffington's blog is the opening line: "My New Year's resolution is to eat a vegan diet whenever I have the opportunity to do so."

There is a tendency among orthodoxly observant vegans and vegetarians to consider a position like Huffington's - which has come to be known as "flexitarianism" in the last few years - heretical. For people like myself who are vegan primarily because we regard unnecessary cruelty or violence to animals as a sin, it is heretical to let an animal die or suffer from time to time for our own convenience or craving. But most people aren't ready to make such a thorough ethical and lifestyle commitment. A "veg lite" commitment, a la Huffington - complemented by a commitment to eat more humanely produced animal foods when one does indulge - is a much more appetizing proposition.

While I look forward to a world in which full-time vegans continue to increase significantly in number, what has me most excited at this juncture in our species' moral history is the rapidly accelerating mass movement toward humane, flexitarian and socially and environmentally responsible eating. A majority of people eating this way will do immeasurably more for animals, the environment and global food security than a minority of "full-time vegans."

Vive la revolution!

Syd Baumel
SERV member and publisher of eatkind.net and VegFoodNation.com