Why wool matters… Obviously, that line from this flyer in a shop window on Regent St in London caught my attention. I scoffed, walked past, then doubled back, returning to snap this image. We’ve been conditioned to romanticise wool, sidestepping everything about it, from what it is, how it’s obtained, its ecological impact, heck even…
Essays
Notes on the 2022 BFI London Film Festival
The 2022 BFI London Film Festival (“LFF) was my first back in-person since 2019. These are my notes and observations about the films. These aren’t full blown reviews because I’m no film expert. Last year’s online selection was dire, super depressing themes – and I like depressing films – and no Italian films – deadly…
Are animal documentaries educational or speciesist?
Animal documentaries feel like a scam we don’t even think about as a scam anymore. They’re rationalised as educational and, arguably, they can be. Often, they’re ghoulish displays of supreme speciesism. On the one hand We often have scenes of natural behaviour from eating, including predation, to mating, nesting and taking care of young. At…
Freya the Walrus
Freya the walrus drew crowds and in the end that did her in. No different than what happens to the billions of land animals and uncountable sea life we kill each year. And the timing between this and what’s happening at Sfattoria, couldn’t be more ironic. Animals always lose. It doesn’t have to be this…
No refuge
What’s happening at the animal sanctuary Sfattoria degli Ultimi near Rome is tragic and infuriating. It also encapsulates what it means to be an animal in our world: animals have no rights to their own lives because they’re categorised as objects. They have no more rights than our phones or handbags. What’s happening at Sfattoria…
Efficiency of cultivated meat
In response to a post about extreme climate and animal agriculture, I received a question on a social media platform about the efficiency of cultivated meat compared to current farming practices. Although not exhaustive, my response covers a variety of points from ethics to supply chain, environment, taxes and more. In this context, we can’t…
Vegan Options: Beyond the Menu – for Women in the Food Industry magazine
I’m delighted to have contributed this opinion feature, “Vegan Options: Beyond the Menu“, about what to consider when designing vegan menus for the latest issue of the excellent Women in the Food Industry magazine. Winter 2021 is a bumper issue and shouldn’t be missed. Below is an excerpt. Click the link above or the photo…
Vegan 101: My Favourite Vegan Cookbooks and Vegan Food Blogs
A few readers of our book, Think Like a Vegan, sent us messages asking about vegan cookbooks and vegan food blogs to help them learn about vegan food. I’ve written a few of these types of lists over the years. It’s time to pull them together properly.
Pablo Escobar’s hippos are … still only hippos
Truly transformational change for animals will come when the legal status of animals is no longer property. I long to see case law shifting in that direction. Despite headlines and online chatter, I don’t believe the recent court order about Pablo Escobar’s hippos gets us much closer. When I began seeing the headlines about the…
Canada Goose: it’s not what you think
In the last 24 hours, the Veganverse and news media have been announcing the publicly traded jacket company, Canada Goose, is ending all use of fur on its jackets. This is simply incorrect. Is it poor reporting? Poor reading skills? I don’t know. I’m not surprised. I’m used to looking things up myself and have…
