Eating an Ethical Diet

I’ve been a vegetarian for ethical reasons for over twenty years, and my artwork and writings about my pieces address issues including animal rights, ethics, conservation, and ecological balance. The COVID-19 pandemic is a direct result of our generally poor relationship with meat consumption, including that of endangered wildlife. Now due to meatpacking plants, the city that I live in has topped a variety of coronavirus tracking charts in terms of spread, density, and duration. Iowa is mass torturing and slaughtering pigs as a result of the pandemic’s disruption of the processing and supply chain. Eating meat increases global warming, obesity rates, and an acceptance of cruelty and superiority that can’t help but seep into other parts of our lives.

Here’s a great Op-Ed in the New York Times that goes into more detail on all of my above points. I support eating an ethical diet and believe we need real reform in this arena as well.

Secrecy Never Breeds Corruption, Right?

In yet another disheartening move by the new Trump administration, the United States Department of Agriculture has removed a variety of documentation regarding animal welfare and enforcement of current standards of care from their website.  In a hilariously disingenuous statement, this decision is explained as being based in part due to the USDA's "commitment to being transparent."