63. Winning Hearts and Minds for Animals
December 23, 2021
After more than two years of offering biweekly reflections on our movement, the time has come for me to transition to the writing of the
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61. Fighting for Farmed Animals Since 1975
November 23, 2021
FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement) is the oldest U.S. animal rights organization and the only one fighting for farmed animals during our movement’s first two
60. Save the Turkeys!
November 10, 2021
Thanksgiving and Christmas have been traditionally and literally “murder” on turkeys. The growing popularity of plant-based roasts and the Covid-induced ban on large family gatherings
59. Our Killing Quandary
October 26, 2021
We’re all deeply troubled by the killing of animals for food. We wonder who the killers are and what makes them do it. We draw
58. The Art of Vegan Advocacy
October 12, 2021
Many of us have our own strategy for turning friends and strangers toward veganism, whether through offering plant-based foods, writing essays, posting videos, or conducting
51. Honoring Our Pioneers: Henry Spira
July 6, 2021
We stand on the shoulders of pioneers who conceived, built, and nurtured our movement, yet are now forgotten. They displayed uncommon vision, creativity, conviction, daring,
50. Struggling with Ethics and Solidarity
June 22, 2021
As vegans, our ethical obligations toward animals are perfectly clear. As animal rights advocates, we know where our solidarity resides. Or do we? Please join
49. Our Intersectional Quandary
June 8, 2021
Many of us claim that animal oppression lies at the root of all oppression. Some of us come to animal rights advocacy from participation in
48. What Tears Us Apart
May 25, 2021
Our last essay reviewed the several devices that have allowed us to forge our respect and compassion for animals into a viable and lasting international
47. What Has Brought Us Together
May 11, 2021
The basic elements of a movement are vision, campaigns, publications, and conferences. How did those elements play out in forming, shaping, and nurturing our own
42. MeatOut – A Global Success Story
March 2, 2021
March 20th will mark the 37th annual observance of MeatOut, our global grassroots campaign to end the use of animals for food. Other such efforts
41. Why We Oppress? Why Animals?
February 16, 2021
The tragic oppression of animals is rooted in the oppressive mindset, which has governed human actions since the dawn of history. Any attempts to end
38. Our Challenges for the ’20s
January 5, 2021
Social movements, like all living and prospering entities, must evolve and grow, else they wither and die. In the next decade, our movement will face
31. Bearing Witness
September 29, 2020
World Day for Farmed Animals, just around the corner, on October 2nd, offers an appropriate setting for revisiting what’s at the core of our animal
29. To the Animals, All People are Nazis
September 1, 2020
Today’s essay marks the beginning of the second year of The Vegan Blog. It reprises our very first essay recounting my journey from the Holocaust
19. The Enigma of Choice
April 14, 2020
Is our diet an option or a decision? Are our choices based on a rational process, social norms, or chance circumstances? Who makes our choices?
16. Power of Language & Rhetoric
March 3, 2020
Language and rhetoric are the fundamental tools of any advocacy. Language refers to our choice of words and expressions. Rhetoric is the art of shaping
14. Vegan World & Social Change
February 4, 2020
Human behavior, including what we eat, is dictated by our community’s powerful social norms. These norms are shaped by our collective needs, desires, and morals,
12. An AR Blueprint For the ’20s
January 7, 2020
Social movements, like all living and prospering entities, must evolve and grow, else they wither and die. In the next decade, our movement will face
09. Who’s a Vegan?
November 26, 2019
We seek a vegan world. That’s the one concept we all seem to agree on. But what does a vegan world look like? Will we
06. Don’t Cut the Animals
October 15, 2019
Exploitation of animals in the name of science came much later in the history of human civilization than their exploitation for labor, religious sacrifices, and
05. Memorializing Farmed Animals
September 26, 2019
Back in the early 1980s, shortly after I committed my life to stopping the use of animals for food, I heard an apocryphal tale of
04. Don’t Eat the Animals
September 23, 2019
The role of animals in prehistoric diets is still the subject of lively debate. Even the Bible has it both ways. Animal sacrifices, associated with
03. But, Can They Suffer?
September 16, 2019
For more than two millennia, human relationship with animals was governed by Aristotle’s view, that animals are mindless creatures in the service of men. That
02. In the Beginning…
September 9, 2019
Two key factors combined to doom animals since the beginning of human civilization. First, a perennially angry and vengeful god, manifested through natural disasters and
01. To the Animals, All People Are Nazis
September 1, 2019
On this very day, 80 years ago, the Nazi armies invaded Poland, and launched World War II. I was five years old. Within a year,