From DawnWatch: "Are Vegans Right?" - Stunning cover story from Canada's UC Observer - May 2016
Karen Dawn and her website DawnWatch alert subscribers to media coverage about animals and opportunities to write letters or comments on their behalf. The email below about a very positive, pro-vegan article, inspired me to write to the editor and to the writer of the article. It's a long article, but well worth reading.
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DawnWatch: "Are Vegans Right?" - Stunning cover story from Canada's UC Observer - May 2016
"Are Vegans Right?" is the cover story for May 2016 United Church Observer. The author of this beautifully penned article answers with a resounding yes. I have just learned about this Canadian monthly magazine. Its website tell us: "Founded in 1829, The Observer is the oldest continuously published magazine in North America and the second oldest in the English-speaking world. It has won international acclaim for journalistic excellence and garnered more awards for writing than any other Canadian religious publication." The cover article is not religious in nature. The caption across the magazine's site is "Ethical Living, Justice and Faith" and the story deals with ethical living. To give you an idea of how persuasive it is, I will quote the opening paragraphs of David Wilson's editorial about it: "Toronto writer David Macfarlane submitted the first draft of this months cover story on veganism in late February. At an editorial meeting in early March, everyone working on the piece confessed theyd either gone off meat or cut back dramatically since reading it. "Its that convincing. Given the militancy of some vegans, you might expect Macfarlanes piece to be something of a diatribe. But Macfarlane is no evangelist for the vegan cause. Rather, his article (Are vegans right?) is a clear-headed account of his own experience with a strictly plant-based diet. It begins with curiosity and culminates in wisdom. I defy even the staunchest carnivore to read it and not feel a little drawn to the conclusion that our appetites often get in the way of our ethics." Ironically, that editorial is titled, "My beef with veganism." But, as those opening paragraphs suggest, Wilson's beef is being outweighed by Macfarlane's arguments. You'll find that editorial at http://www.ucobserver.org/editorials/2016/05/observations/ There are already some great comments next to it. If you choose to comment, which would be great, please remember that whatever you think of Wilson's lingering doubts, it was he, the editor, who chose to include Macfarlane beautiful article and put it on the cover, so he deserves much appreciation. The cover story, by David Macfarlane, titled, "Are vegans right?" has the subheading, "The writer is in the midst of a radical six-month change of diet. Hes discovering that no cheeseburger tastes as good as being ethical feels." Rather than summarizing a lot of the piece, I am going to encourage you to sit back with a nice glass of something and enjoy it, for it's a wonderful read with many lovely turns of phrase. And then share it with every non vegan you know, because, as the editor of the magazine has noted, it is so inviting and gently persuasive. I will share just a couple of my favorite paragraphs: "Does my digestive system work better with a herbivore gatekeeper in charge? (It does.) Are my energy levels higher? (They are.) Am I losing weight? (I am.) Do I generally feel better? (I do.) But as reasons to be vegan, these personal improvements seem a little self-absorbed to me. The recipes I have tried from Plenty and Oh She Glows cookbooks are delicious and surprisingly satisfying. But, really. If Im going to give up a butterflied leg of lamb barbecued with chèvre, fresh Italian parsley, garlic and olive oil, its going to have to be for better reasons than becoming more trim. "'Because we all liked cheeseburgers so much' is going to sound pretty stupid when humankind is hauled into the principal's office and asked to explain how the planet got destroyed." Macfarlane doesn't focus only on the environment though. He notes what happens to animals in the food industry and takes on the "lame-brained-to-begin-with idea that animals exist in an entirely different realm of sentience than humans...." Here is one more of my favorite paragraphs: "Once these kinds of ethical arguments began to swirl around in what I like to think of as a reasonably fair-minded brain, and once I took the perilous state of the Earth into account, it became evident to me that eating a hot dog is as much a political act as not eating one. Its a choice, and what Im beginning to learn is that its a pretty clear one. You can be over there with the interesting looking young people who are enjoying a dinner of lentils, avocado and roasted yams. Or you can be with the multi-billion-dollar industry that pretty consistently put its own interests ahead of health, the environment, social and economic justice and way, way ahead of the interests of animals." You'll find the article on line at http://www.ucobserver.org/society/2016/05/vegans/ You can comment right beneath it. And please send an appreciative letter to the editor. Go to http://www.ucobserver.org/contact/ and choose "letter to the editor" from the pull-down menu, which is under "Send mail to." My thanks to my Facebook contact Susan Endlich who sent this my way with the note, "I think I recall you being open to great vegan material in the media." Yep. And this one really is great. Enjoy! Yours and the animals', Karen Dawn ---- DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com Please go to http://tinyurl.com/254ulkx to check out my book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which will give you background on any issue covered by DawnWatch. For more animal rights news, follow me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/theKarenDawn where I post almost daily and on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/thekarendawn I also blog occasionally on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-dawn/ To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php ---------------------------------------- You are subscribed to DawnWatch using the following address: eatplants@earthlink.net Date: Tue May 17 18:20:48 2016