\nface briefly turned the same shade as my hair as I attempted to explain how
\nexactly it is I enjoyed reading about
\nthe grisly perils of factory farming in the newly released collection of
\nessays, Gristle<\/a>,
\nwhich the musician and long-time vegan edited along with Miyun Park, the
\nexecutive director for Global
\nAnimal Partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once <\/p>\n Q. Did you draw the cow on the front of the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A. No, I didn’t. I wish I did. My drawing ability is mostly limited to little bald-headed <\/p>\n Q. What do you feel like this book contributes to the <\/p>\n A. It’s for people who might be interested in the consequences of agribusiness and <\/p>\n Q. Why do you think you were a good fit for editing the compilation?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A. I think Miyun and I working together made a lot of sense because we both have <\/p>\n Q. Factory farming affects a lot of areas like our health, animal welfare, and climate <\/p>\n A. It’s hard to say because it depends upon who is being impacted and also depends <\/p>\n Q. What do you think the solution is for getting people to cut back on animal <\/p>\n A. For me, there’s one simple solution, which the likelihood of it happening is <\/p>\n Q. What sort of group activism would you suggest people get involved with that <\/p>\n A. Not to be overly simplistic, but the first thing that springs to mind is people <\/p>\n Q. Have you ever cheated on your vegan diet?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A. See, I also don’t want to be a judgmental like holier-than-thou vegan. Like <\/p>\n Q. Were you emotionally scarred afterward?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A. No, I was just reminded of why I’m a vegan, but really I don’t judge people’s Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Have Jesus’ disciples been overeating?<\/a><\/p>\n Watching the green screens at the Environmental Film Festival in D.C.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI regained my composure, Moby and I chatted about animal welfare, veganism, and
\nwhy a meal at McDonald’s should cost $75. Seattleites can listen to him further elaborate tonight at Town Hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\naliens looking to one side. I wanted the cow to look more worried, though. I
\nthink originally it didn’t have an eye. So I told the graphic designer I wanted
\nit to have an eye, and I wanted it to look worried.<\/p>\n
\nfactory farmed meat discussion that others in the genre do not?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nfactory farming. And also, kind of like a companion to some of these other
\nbooks and movies. I really like the Michael Pollan book and Jonathan Safran
\nFoer’s book. And I have a lot of admiration and respect for the authors, but
\ntheir books are a bit more subjective and personal. And so I think we wanted to
\nmake this as sort of a bit more factual, less opinionated, less emotional, and
\njust a factual companion to books like that.<\/p>\n
\nbeen in the world of animal welfare for a long time. It’s her day job, and I’m
\nmore of a dilettante. I guess I was a good fit in that, with information like
\nthis, which is not the happiest, funnest information in the world, the choice
\nwas to make a very dry, factual book that wouldn’t get much attention, but if
\nyou attach a well-intentioned, quasi public figure to it and give it a cute cow
\non the cover and a nice yellow background, it increases the chances that more
\nand more people might actually look at it. If it just had a brown cover with
\nsome bad printing, I think there would be 10 people on the planet who would
\nlook at it—so just a sort of acknowledgment of the ways in which media are
\ndisseminated.<\/p>\n
\nchange, but where do you think it has the biggest impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\non the long-term impact. I think the biggest and most impactful aspect of
\nagribusiness is really going to be on climate change. The U.N. released a
\nreport basically stating that 25 percent of all climate change is a result of
\nanimal production, and they also released a statement saying probably the
\neasiest way to arrest climate change would be to change the practices of
\nagribusiness, of factory farming. But the effects of climate change are slow;
\nthey’ll be drastic, but they are slow. So in the short term it seems like the
\nbiggest impact, apart from the impact on the welfare of animals that are being
\ntortured and slaughtered, the biggest impact is on the communities where the factory
\nfarms actually are. It’s estimated that when a factory farm is introduced to a
\ncommunity, the price of residential real estate goes down 80 percent. I mean,
\nit’s impacting consumers and it’s impacting the animals and impacting the
\nenvironment, but it really is decimating the communities where the factory
\nfarms actually exist.<\/p>\n
\nconsumption? Is it education?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\npretty slim, but still, my pie in the sky dream is to end subsidies for
\nagribusiness and end subsidies for animal production and basically let the free
\nmarket decide the cost of a pound of beef and a pound of chicken. If there were
\nno subsidies for beef, a pound of beef would cost around $25, and if every
\naspect of animal production wasn’t subsidized, a family of four going to
\nMcDonald’s for a quick meal would spend $75. So really it’s like the silver
\nbullet that fixes the problem. And I would almost think it would make for
\ninteresting bedfellows, where you might even get some libertarian Tea Party
\npeople to talk about ending giving subsidies to animal production. But then
\nagain, not to be too inflammatory, but thus far every single person in the Tea
\nParty is a raving lunatic, so I don’t expect them to join our cause any time
\nsoon.<\/p>\n
\nwould really have an impact on this?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ntalking to each other—just communicating. Because I spent a long period of
\ntime being a really annoying, militant, didactic vegan. And over time I
\nrealized my militancy and didacticism was just irritating people, so now I try
\nto communicate a lot more honestly and respectfully and without judgment. So my
\nfirst thought is just talking to people. I mean a lot of it is more individual
\naction in terms of how people shop, because every time you spend money, you’re
\nvoting for the practices of whoever’s produced what you’re paying for. Also, lobbying
\nlocal legislators. On a group level, nice things like invite people over for
\ndinner and surprise them with the fact that vegetarian, vegan food isn’t as
\nstrange as they would think and is actually really tasty. And one of the
\ngreatest things, and this plays perfectly into this, is the idea of building
\ncommunity gardens. Just as agribusiness decimates everything with which it
\ncomes into contact, community gardens benefit everything with which they come
\ninto contact. They raise property values, they benefit the people working on
\nthem, and they can actually produce healthy, locally grown food.<\/p>\n
\nif someone is a meat eater but they maybe reduce their meat consumption for
\nenvironmental reasons, more power to them. And far be it for me to judge. But
\nin the last 22 years, I cheated twice. I had, and this is going to sound so
\ncrazy, I had yogurt in 1992, and I have to say it was really good. And about
\nfive years ago, I was talking to a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner,
\nand he said I should start eating eggs. So I went to the store and I bought
\norganic, free range, locally grown eggs and I tried to eat an egg, but I just
\ndidn’t like it.<\/p>\n
\nlifestyles. If someone chooses to eat meat or dairy, that’s their choice. I
\njust think that meat and dairy can be produced a lot more ethically than they
\ncurrently are being produced and with much less impact on communities, on the
\nenvironment, and on people’s health.<\/p>\n