Foreign Rights

Most of us don’t want to hurt animals. But they also want their steak. This is what we call the “meat paradox”.We don’t want to see what we’re really eating: dead animals. More and more researchers explain this phenomenon of “cognitive dissonance” as the product of social practices and beliefs specifically aimed at denying the existence of animal suffering. These practices and beliefs conspire to convince us, from childhood, that it is normal, natural, and necessary to eat animal products. However nothing could actually be further from the truth – in terms of our health, animal ethics, and environmental sustainability. In this engaging and accessible essay, Martin Gibert synthesizes contemporary debates on themeat paradox. In so doing, he presents veganism, a growingmoral and politicalmovement that fights for the rights of animals as well as social and environmental justice.