Vegetarian Star

“Yeah, I like being vegan, I think it’s good for my health. But honestly, one of the main reasons I’m vegan is because I’m ethically lazy. My friends who eat meat or who eat eggs have to sometimes wrestle with the ethical consequences of their actions. By being vegan, I take the easy way out.”

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Lisa Bloom, an attorney and legal expert who hosted her own talk show on Court TV and has served as a legal analyst for CNN and CBS news, is a lifelong vegetarian who eventually became a vegan.

Bloom thinks the answer to climate change is to adopt a vegan diet, and discusses why in this clip taken during an interview when she attended a book signing event for Gristle, a collection of essays co-edited by Moby, on the effects of factory farms on the planet.

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Treehugger posted a video from a talk given by Moby and Miyun Park, the two co-editors of the book about factory farming, Gristle, during one of their book promotion appearances.

Moby reiterated what he’s said before in interviews about how subsidies to big farms not only make it harder for people to buy healthier, organic, plant based food, but contribute to more destruction of the environment and more animals killed, as these subsidies are also used to start new farms.

Moby has previously estimated that beef would cost around $30 a pound if subsidies to the meat industry were removed.

Definitely no longer a value meal at McDonald’s, that’s for sure.

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Gristle

“Unless one treats their kitchen like a biohazard lab, there can be cross-contamination of contagion. In meat-eating households, researchers have found more fecal bacteria in the kitchen–on sponges, dish towels, the sink, and counter surfaces–than they found swabbing the rim of the toilet. We shouldn’t have to cook the crap out of food.”

—-Dr. Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Greger writes in Chapter 9 of “Gristle,” edited by Moby and Miyun Park, as he discusses possible zoonotic diseases linked to animal agriculture.

Dr. Greger suggests that many human infectious diseases, measles, smallpox, avian influenza and SARS came from animals.

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Miyun Park and Moby

Together at last!

Well, not really, but the editors of Gristle, Moby and Miyun Park answered a few short questions via email and their publicist to Washington City Paper.

While many previous interviews in the media have been made with only Moby, Miyun offers an additional perspective, one that hints her goal is to get everyone thinking about factory farming but not necessarily going vegetarian.

Take for example, the creatively worded question of “Gustatory preferences aside, is there any good reason for wealthy urbanites in industrialized nations to eat meat?”

Moby’s Answer:
Objectively, I cannot think of a good reason to eat meat — wealthy urbanite or not. It is an inefficient use of resources and more often than not, it leads to obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Miyun’s Answer:
There is certainly no reason for anyone to support industrialized animal production and there is no reason for farmers themselves to support these intrusive systems. I encourage everyone to make informed choices at every meal.

Similarly, while Miyun applauds the work of Temple Grandin for easing the stress of slaughter animals, Moby considers the question “tricky” because although less suffering is desirable, a world where animals aren’t used for food period is his ultimate dream.

Read more at Washington City Paper.

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The book edited by Moby and Miyun Park on factory farming, Gristle, isn’t meant to be a vegetarian or vegan converting source.

As co-editor Park said, “This book isn’t about veganism, and it isn’t about bringing down the animal agriculture industry.”

In fact, some contributors are even part of the meat industry.

So why would Moby, a vegan for two decades, decide to partake in something that doesn’t outright condem using animals as food?

Moby answered to Philly.com:

“The book is about presenting people with the facts and ramifications of factory farming and large-scale industrial animal production. What people do with the information is up to them. There are so many different types of animal agriculture, from the pernicious to the relatively benign, so it’s hard for me to make any huge blanket statements.”

Bottom line is, Moby isn’t using Gristle to tell you if consuming or using animals to produce food is okay.

That’s a decision you’ll have to come to on your own.

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Chipotle founder, co-CEO and co-chair Steve Ells says the pork sourced for their products is obtained from Niman Ranch, a small network of family farms that raise their pigs on open pastures or deeply bedded barns, feed them vegetarian diets and give them no hormones or antibiotics.

After switching to this supplier, Ells found sales increased even after having to charge an extra dollar to cover the cost of the non factory farmed meat.

Paul Wills, manager of Niman Ranch Pork Company, is a contributor in Moby and Miyun Park‘s edited collection of essays, Gristle, where he discusses the strain big farms put on small family ones.

Although Wills may be a fish out of water in a book edited by a vegan with a vegetarian slant, the experience with Chipotle restaurant teaches us that the more humane way to raise an animal for food not only puts less stress on the organism and the environment, but results in more satisfaction for the consumer.

Niman Ranch’s “ethical meat” is not a vegetarian carnita, but it’s a step forward in taking better care of the world and every living thing, including part time vegetarians, that inhabits it.

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Moby is a reformed vegan.

Although in the past, he sometimes refused to speak to non vegans, he confessed at the Genesis Awards that he used to have a holier than thou attitude towards the non vegans until he realized that being a jerk didn’t do much for converting or saving any creature other than his ego.

During an interview with Grant Butler of the Oregonian, the musician said, “There are a lot of people in the animal rights movement who can be very passionate and aggressive, and I applaud people’s passion, but when people are judgmental and aggressive, all you end up doing is getting other people to turn away in irritation. To change people’s minds, you have to respect the people you’re talking to. Part of that is presenting the facts available, and not being pedantic or judgmental.”

So expect to see a passionate, but respectful character if you catch him on his Gristle book tour.

And if you accidentally wear your old pair of leather shoes you bought before you changed, rest assured you won’t be crucified.

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