Vegetarian Star

Barnes & Noble

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of several books dealing with animal issues, including The Face on Your Plate, sat down with the bloggers at Supervegan.com for a chat about factory farming, animals, and his latest book.

A few excerpts:

SV: Since most people will never have the opportunity to see a slaughterhouse or an animal agriculture facility, how can we open their eyes to the horrors of the industry and that it’s within their power to change it by going vegan? Is that the goal of the book?

JMM: Yes, that is the goal of the book. I am hoping that the people who read it will become convinced that I am telling the truth and will save themselves the horror of seeing the animals suffer and simply go vegan. It really is the only logical conclusion to the information now freely available to everyone.

SV: The next chapter, “The Fishy Business of Aquaculture,” is a more comprehensive look at the world of fish farming than I’ve seen, and many of the facts were new to me, such as that we share 85% of our genes with zebra fish and that salmon are starved for seven to 10 days before slaughter.

JMM: I knew nothing of this before I began to investigate. It was frustrating; I was never able to visit a salmon farm, for example. The people who raise fish on farms do not want us, the public, to see how these fish live. That is because we would be appalled and sickened if we could. Your summary is excellent. I devoted an entire chapter because it is such a little-known phenomenon. And because I feel that too many people think fish have no feelings, and so can be eaten without thought. They are wrong, and I was delighted to read the science that demonstrates how complex fish really are. They deserve better press.

Read the entire interview with Masson at supervegan.com.

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In a new documentary, Processed People, author Dr. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson explains the very simple reason why he went veg: He didn’t want to see animals slaughtered.

Masson thinks that most people feel this way and if we were forced to kill our own meat, at least 90% of people would be vegetarians.

“There are always people who are willing to kill,” Dr. Masson says. “But you know what’s interesting? In every society, butchers are almost a class apart. It’s as if the person does not want to be associated with the act of killing. I think almost everybody has a bad conscience about it.”

Masson is the author of books such as The Face on Your Plate: The Truth about Food and When Elephants Weep.

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