These Little Piggies Had Tofu

Friday, January 15, 2010

One Planet - Animals and Us

The BBC program One Planet recently aired a two-part series called Animals and Us by Victor Schonfeld.

Schonfeld produced The Animals Film twenty-eight years ago.

I've never seen The Animals Film, but it looks like it was one of the first of its kind. It seems to me that it was Earthlings before Earthlings was Meet Your Meat.

So now Schonfeld has produced a two-part radio series, "to give a very personal view on what, if anything, has changed since then."

Listen here:
Part 1
Part 2

Gary Francione (who is interviewed in each broadcast), Roger Yates and Elizabeth Collins did post-show commentaries which can be listened to here (review of part 1) and here (review of part 2). I have to admit I haven't listened through both commentaries yet, but I know Gary's podcasts (not to mention his guests) are always insightful and thought-provoking, so I feel confident in linking to them here.

I felt that Animals and Us was well done. Shonfeld, largely by virtue of interviewing Francione, gave quite a bit of air-time to criticism of the use of animals (as opposed to just focusing on the treatment).

Schonfeld is clearly taking an activist stance in these broadcasts, which I find refreshing. He states early on in each broadcast, "Be warned. This is not balanced dispassionate journalism. I'm opposed to animal suffering for human needs and pleasures, as are most of the people we'll be hearing from."

Given his activist stance, my main qualm was that there was too much of a focus on lab animals in the second broadcast (pretty much the whole thing). The overwhelming majority of animal exploitation occurs within animal agriculture. That's not to say that we shouldn't also care and talk about vivisection, fur, circuses and zoos. But when all you have is two 28 minute broadcasts I think the most productive angle to take, from an efficient activist point of view, is to focus on the use of animals for food.

Not a huge qualm, but a qualm nonetheless.

Did you listen to Animals and Us? Have you seen The Animals Film?

If so, what did you think?

Monday, January 11, 2010

Anna's Original Music

Liam's almost one year old already. When Anna turned one I made a 15 minute slideshow of photos and video. In my attempt to give Liam as much media-exposure as his big sister, I'm putting together a slideshow of him, too.

There is significantly less time to do stuff like this these days, but I'll be glad I did it down the road.

Anyway, while going through the video from the past year I came across this and was shocked that I didn't post it at the time. Here's Anna singing a made-up song back in June.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Anna (First) Wednesday #30

Anna and her cousin Zach at my parents' place, all dressed up and ready to go on their first snowmobile rides.

Fun was had by all.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

To the Future!

These Little Piggies Had Tofu has slipped into stagnation. A spurting feed of photos of my adorable, adorable kids.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure you all love my adorable kids. But it's not what I envisioned when I started this blog.

Part of the stagnation is due to the simple fact of having two kids. Part of it is because of the time-suck that is Facebook.

So here are the changes that I'm making. Anna Wednesday and Friday Liam are going to become Anna First Wednesday (to be published on the first Wednesday of each month) and Last Friday Liam (on the last Friday of the month).

This will hopefully prompt me to write more substantive posts and not rely on the twice-weekly photos of my adorable, adorable kids. I want to post more recipes, photos of food, animal rights-based arguments and thoughts, and stories about raising my kids vegan.

My 2010 resolution is to get back to a quality over quantity mindset. This means less overall posts, but more posts of substance.

I'm also, in the near future, going to create a fan page for the blog over on Facebook. All the cool kids are doing it.

I am also open to suggestions for topics. What do you, dear reader, want me to write about? Anything about vegan parenting you've always wanted to know? Is there an argument for or against veganism that you'd like to see addressed? Hit me up. I'm pretty insightful when I want to be.

That is all. Here's hoping you all have a happy 2010!