Welcome to Small Bites, Sound Bites, a midweek segment of food for thought podcast where I share short, succinct, thoughtful responses to typical questions, myths, and misconceptions related to plant-based eating, veganism, and animal protection.

You can get written transcripts of this podcast by going to joyfulvegan.com slash donate.

We humans have all sorts of justifications for continuing to eat animals, all of which turn out to be pretty arbitrary.

Whether we're using culture or tradition or religion or physiology as our justification, I hear it's a common cultural behavior to eat animals.

Well, which cultures and which animals for that matter? There are many animals, one culture, is uncomfortable eating that another culture regularly dines on.

Traditionally, we've always eaten animals as something I hear. Traditionally, we have also not eaten animals. We pick and choose which traditions we want to uphold and which ones we want to follow based on what's convenient for us.

Well, religion supports eating animals, some people say, well, which religions? Some religions prohibit animal consumption, some don't.

Some ritually kill animals, some make sure no animals are harmed even while walking down the street.

Well, physiology then, we're physiologically inclined to eat animals.

Actually, physiologically, we resemble herbivorous animals more than we do carnivorous ones, but just because we're physiologically inclined to do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Or if that we have to do it, I'm biologically inclined to have children that doesn't mean I have to.

The point is if we flip it around, we could easily justify not eating animals using physiology or culture or tradition or religion as the defense.

It's really just a matter of which story we want to tell. For the animals, this is Colleen Patrick-Gudrow.

You can find more at joyfulvegan.com. Thanks for listening.