Don't Give a Cow
Food for Thought: The Joys and Benefits of Living Vegan
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2006
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
I've always been perplexed by the claim that animal advocates are anti-human. It seems really odd to me because though we're reminded every day that humans steal, lie, cheat, kill, rape, and hurt each other, I’ve never heard any of these people called "anti-human." It seems to me that the accusation would better suit someone who actually acts against humans. It also doesn't say much about our capacity to care about more than one thing at a time. Why would my compassion for one group diminish my capacity for another? Nonetheless, animal advocates are often reluctant to publicly object to such groups as Heifer Project International, a "hunger relief" organization, lest they be accused of caring more about animals than humans. I, however, see it differently. Perpetuating a speciesist paradigm - that views animals as mere commodities with no inherent value of their own - Heifer and other organizations like it participates in what is essential a slave trade - an animal slave trade. Exporting our own preventable diseases, fostering an environmentally destructive animal ag system, imposing harmful substances on lactose-intolerant populations, desensitizing people to animal suffering, and manipulating our own compassionate sensibilities are just a few of the problems I see with this model.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And I'm Welcome to Food for Thought. My name is Colleen Patrick Udo from Compassionate Cooks. |
| 0:21.0 | I founded Compassionate Cooks to empower people to make informed food choices |
| 0:26.0 | and to debunk myths about vegetarianism and animal rights. I do this through |
| 0:30.4 | cooking classes and online cookbook lectures and workshops articles and |
| 0:34.8 | essays this podcast and a cooking DVD you can learn more about who we are and what we do by |
| 0:41.3 | visiting our website Compassionate cooks.com. |
| 0:45.9 | At least once a day I receive an email from someone who tells me their thoughts have been |
| 0:50.5 | changed. Their life has been changed because of something they heard on this |
| 0:54.0 | podcast. And I don't know if I can express to you what that means to me, how that affects me, how that |
| 1:00.5 | changes me. Each time a new email comes in I have to share it right away with |
| 1:05.4 | my husband, the poor guy, never gets a break. And as I was reading yet another incredibly |
| 1:11.8 | moving email to him the other day and was you |
| 1:15.0 | know emotional and touched by what I was reading it seemed to me that he was somewhat |
| 1:18.8 | distant like he wasn't really listening to what I was reading. And when I pointed this out, he said, it was |
| 1:25.3 | hard for him to focus on the content of the email because he was so amazed that even after |
| 1:29.9 | receiving so many emails like this from people every day I still respond to each |
| 1:34.6 | one as if it's the first time I've heard this kind of feedback and it was a very nice |
| 1:39.3 | observation I still made him pay attention to the content of the email I was reading but you know it's absolutely true I cherish each and every |
| 1:47.2 | story you tell me each and every email you send me I'm so honored to be part of |
| 1:51.6 | your experiences and your transformations. |
| 1:54.0 | You're the ones making the changes and doing the work. |
| 1:57.0 | I'm just the messenger, but it's really an honor to be part of your lives in this way. |
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