Beautiful Essays + Truthful Articles
Climate Deadlines for Meat & Dairy
Summary of a 2024 survey of 200 scientists concludes the only way to achieve climate goals is to drastically reduce production of meat and dairy. For years, climate scientists have been talking about and working on reducing global warming by phasing out fossil fuels. It’s time for governments and legislators to work on animal agriculture.
Consider the Lobster
The late, great essayist David Foster Wallace considers the question, “Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?”
Meat Consumption in the U.S.: Increasing or Decreasing?
Short article that unravels conflicting data on meat consumption: Is it increasing or decreasing? The U.S. and Portugal are tied for highest overall meat consumption in the world. Chicken accounts for the largest portion of meat eaten in the U.S., while in Portugal, people prefer seafood. U.S. consumers eat an average of 82 pounds of beef/year, well above the global average of 19.8 pounds/year. Many Americans have swapped beef for poultry – which is why it tops the chart of most-consumed meat. Most meat in the U.S. – beef, poultry, pork — is raised in environmentally destructive, and largely unregulated CAFOs.
Regulating the Food Industry: An Aspirational Agenda
Nutrition professor and advocate Marion Nestle describes how, for decades, the food industry has pushed highly processed, high-calorie, low-nutrition foods that kill Americans in shockingly high numbers, via diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and more. Nestle outlines an aspirational advocacy agenda that puts the brakes on the processed food industry.
Restriction as Possibility; Lifestyle as Politics
Journalist Alicia Kennedy argues that while “lifestyle” writers (e.g., food and fashion) typically steer clear of politics, it is their duty to “engage with the realities of the world.” Lifestyle choices such as what to eat or what to wear have ripple effects that often do concern politics. “One person in the United States’ easy pleasures are another person’s and ecosystem’s burden,” Kennedy writes. Case in point: While you are enjoying a bacon and eggs breakfast in Boston, people in Duplin County, N.Carolina are being sprayed with hog manure.
Soli/dairy/ty
I was vegetarian for 30+ years before making the decision to stop eating dairy. After reading this beautiful, non-polemic essay, written by a new mother, I never ate dairy again.
The FDA is Coming for Your Almond Milk
“Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, milk, and cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday Act,” sounds like the title of a Saturday Night Live skit. But it’s no joke. It is very real legislation proposed in 2021 by a bi-partisan coalition of politicians from Big Dairy states. You’d think the FDA would have more to worry about than consumers mistaking almond milk for “real” milk, and prohibiting plant-based yogurt, milk and cheese from using those words on labels. Holy Cow!
The Meat Paradox
Most of us love animals. Most of us eat animals. Welcome to the Meat Paradox. This essay does a deep dive into how we cope with holding on to an attitude that is at odds with our behavior.
The Meat Paradox & Your Brain
This quick read answers the question, “Why do people keep eating meat, despite widespread awareness of the downsides?”
What I Gained When I Went Plant-Based: A Cartoon
The author of this cartoon beautifully describes how giving up animal products for plant-based foods expanded, rather than constricted her life choices. A+ for creativity and content!
When a Vegan Craves Bacon
In this brutally honest essay, a vegan admits to succumbing to an inexplicable craving for bacon. What happens? She had an unexpected epiphany.