All posts filed under: thoughts

Sexism and male privelege in the movement, Lisa Kemmerer at IARC

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I attended the 8th International Animal Rights Conference in Luxembourg at the beginning of September. A very inspirational weekend, being together with activists from many different countries and attending many presentations on a broad variety of topics (program here). View this post on Instagram Great vegan sandwiches (and plenty of other stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner) at the @internationalarconference in luxembourg last weekend. 👍 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿 #iarc #iarc2018 #vegantshirt #animalrights #animalrightstshirt #onestruggleonefight #vegan #veganfood A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Sep 10, 2018 at 6:11am PDT View this post on Instagram Arrived at the International Animal Rights Conference! #luxemburg #iarc #iarc2018 #animalrights #speciesism #veganism #luxembourg @internationalarconference A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Sep 6, 2018 at 11:06am PDT I found the presentation by Lisa Kemmerer on ‘Sexism and Male Pivilege among vegan activists‘ the highlight of the Conference. Lisa Kemmerer is a philosopher-activist working on behalf of nonhuman animals, the environment, and disempowered human beings. I first got to know of her work through the book ‘Sister Species. Women, animals and social justice‘. This …

Anarchism & animal rights. Book: Making a Killing (Bob Torres)

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Enjoyed reading this book! I had previously read Vegan Freak from Bob and Jenna Torres, which was a very easy read, and more tongue in cheek. This book is totally different, more academic, about the connections between the oppression of humans and other animals, and on how anarchist and anti-capitalist theory can/should inform the animal rights movement. I would have loved to read more from Bob Torres, but after the termination of their very popular podcast and blog ‘Vegan Freak’ in 2009, he has not published any more on issues of animal rights and seems to have disappeared from public life. Some quotes with food for thought: p.122 “Structured as any other form of oppression, speciesism is more than a mere form of discrimination or prejudice, instead […] it has structural causes that are rooted in mutually constitutive economic, ideological, and sociocultural practices. While an anti-speciesist necessarily does not consume animals, that is not enough action to overcome the deeply rooted processes that produce vast inequality. Instead, what is needed is a movement that radically …

About criminal animals. E.P. Evans (1906) The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals

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I have been adding some books that have been inspirational to me to an album on my facebook account, and I will be adding them here as well. Some are books that I have read a long time ago, some are more recent works. I also want to note that it’s not because a book is featured here, that I agree with everything that is written in it . Or that I find all books equally good! This is an oldy (1906). Historian E.P Evans gives a detailled account of cases throughout history where animals who had ‘murdered’ or attacked humans, or animal ‘pests’ or infestations, were prosecuted (sometimes even with an appointed lawyer), and when found guilty, executed or excommunicated. I used this book in my doctoral research and wrote a chapter about ‘criminal animals’ in my PhD (2002, Anthopocentrism and Speciesism in Contemporary Criminology). Many people dismiss the prosecution and execution of animals as a bizarre and outdated practice from medieval times. But it is still practiced today, although not formally recognised as such. Other …

Nearly one third of youngsters find vegan labelled products more appealing

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A recent US study by Morning Consult on consumer trends covered these three topics: 1) online versus in store shopping habits 2) purchasing considerations and 3) product labelling. In this last section on product labelling, respondents were asked to indicate whether respective terms made food more or less appealing to them. The terms included free range, glutenfree, fresh, natural flavours and another dozen or so terms. A vegan labelled product Stats with respect to the term vegan: Overall, 17% said the term vegan made the product more appealing to buy. 35% said the term vegan made the product neither less nor more appealing. Another 35% said it made the product less appealing. And 12% said they didn’t know, or had no opinion. So that means that over half of respondents (52%) find a vegan labelled product more appealing or neither less or more appealing (combined). ‘Fresh’ was found to be the most appealing term to label a product with, while ‘vegan’ was overall the least. 81% of respondents say that a food or beverage product would be more appealing …

Yield

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Pinnacle of speciesism: when an animal is reduced to her function or yield   Animals are not ‘egg’, ‘bacon’, ‘wool’ or ‘milk’, but each and every one sentient feeling beings, who can suffer pain, each with their own individuality. Spotted in a shop in Valkenburg (the Netherlands)

Can I look at you in peace now? Premiere of Dominion in Ghent

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A couple of weeks ago, the documentary Dominion was shown for the first time to a public audience in Belgium. The premiere was in the Sphinx cinema, in the heart of the city of Ghent (next to the McDonalds, oh the irony). The screening was organised by the ‘Dominion Movement Belgium’. Dominion is an Australian documentary (2018) and is announced as following (website): Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.

First Vegan Street festival in Brussels!

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Saturday was the first edition of Vegan Street Festival in Brussels. It was organised by Veganizer BXL, and supported by the city of Brussels and Beyond Carnism. A vegan festival in the heart of Brussels, with lots of foodstalls, live music, and from 2 to 8 PM there were also talks scheduled in a nearby café. Great! The festival took place at the Marché aux poissons (the fish Market). Oh the irony, to have a vegan market here 🙂 We made sure to be there early, as we know from experience with other vegan events, that it usually gets really crowded in the afternoon, and foodstalls usually sell out after a couple of hours (which reading by the comments afterwards, was the case here too). As we were there early noon, we did not get to attend any of the talks (some talks in the morning would have been nice too). We strolled around, saw a lot of familiar faces and businesses, and chatted with friends. But also got to discover some businesses that were new …

Recommended literature: Animal Rights, Human Rights (David Nibert)

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I recently read ‘Animal Rights. Human Rights. Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation‘ by David Nibert (2002) and found it truly inspiring. The thesis of the book is that human oppression of other animals is primarily motivated by economic interests, and is profoundly and permanently intertwined with oppression of other humans. The economic forces fueling oppression have intensified with the development of capitalism. The oppression of humans and other animals developed in tandem, each fueling the other. Nibert uses a three fold theory of oppression. This theory explains how oppressions takes place through mutually reinforcing social and economic mechanisms. There are three interactive forces: Economic exploitation, competition. The exploitation of other animals (and humans) is driven by economic forces. The motivation for the development and institutionalization of oppressive practices is primarly material, not attitudinal. Prejudice is the product of these arangements. Not the cause. The importance of power. A powerful elite (pivileged humans) uses political force over the oppressed, and they wield the power of the state. Ideological control. Oppression requires rationalisation and legitimation. Ideologies like …

Some changes on the blog: about me, google map and new lay out

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Up till now, I’ve been writing this blog more or less anonymously (the same for my other blog in Dutch, Graswortels). It felt more important to me to have a digital platform were I could lay ‘my vegan egg’ (it’s a Dutch expression, I don’t know whether this translates well in English 😉 ) to have a place where I could drop some ideas, without having to be in the picture myself. But I realise that people want to know something about the person who is writing the blog. To be able to place it in a context, to be able to put a face to it. A blog is of course a personal story, my thoughts and considerations about issues related to veganism and animal rights, so it is interesting to know whose mind those considerations have sprung from.   So I have decided to take the plunge, and a couple of weeks ago, I have added some information about myself. Since I have also made some vlogs, and my face is now linked to the …

Vegan brownie at Cat Café Dreamcathers, Ghent

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Dreamcathers is a cat cafe in between the city hall and the Vrijdagmarkt, in a small alley. It is not far from vegan lunch bar Mie Vie. There are a couple of resident cats who are up for adoption. Dreamcathers work together with the organisations Dierenasiel Gent (shelter Ghent) and Kat Zoekt thuis (Cat looking for a home). Dreamcathers has vegan cakes and brownies and also offers drinks to enjoy while being among the cats (I think all the cakes are vegan, but not quite sure). Cats and vegan cake: a great combination! 🙂 I was here a couple of weeks ago with a friend, after our lunch at vegan cafe Mie Vie. Dreamcatchers works with timeslots. It is advised to make a reservation, but you can always try to inquire on the day itself to check availability. So I did (telephoned beforehand) and it was no problem to come over. The entrance fee is 3 euro per person (if you become a member, which is 10 euro, the entrance fee is reduced to 1,5€). …