PETER siNGER

photo by alletta vaandering

Widely considered to be an influential philosopher in the animal rights movement after his book Animal Liberation was published in 1975, Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp professor of bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Why Vegan? and The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter.

Why is food an ethical issue?

There are several reasons for making food an ethical issue and changing what we’re eating. One is that producing food has an enormous impact on the environment. About 25 percent of all human greenhouse gas emissions come from food production. It’s also an enormous source of animal suffering. Over 70 billion animals are raised and killed each year worldwide, and the majority of them are in intensive factory farms. Their lives are miserable for most of the time. And finally, factory farms are breeding grounds for new viruses. We’ve had swine flu and avian flu coming out of factory farms. It’s quite possible that the next pandemic will originate there.

Is it unethical to contribute to climate change?

It’s impossible to live without contributing to climate change, but it’s unethical to unnecessarily contribute to climate change when you can live in a way that has a lower greenhouse gas footprint. You could say luxury emissions are unethical while survival emissions are necessary, and so one can’t regard them as unethical.

Peter Singer on

Ethical Eating

by Sandra Yeyati

What are the most important food choices that we can make from an ethical standpoint?

Avoiding animal products is probably the first and most important ethical choice one can make. That’s going to dramatically lower your carbon footprint. You will no longer be complicit in the suffering of those tens of billions of factory-farmed animals, and you won’t be contributing to the increasing risks of viruses being bred in factory farms.

Is eating animals all right if they are raised humanely and don’t suffer when they are harvested?

If animals aren’t suffering and have good lives, that’s a big improvement from the point of view of the animals, but it doesn’t overcome other problems. Grass-fed cattle may have good lives, but they continue to emit large quantities of greenhouse gases, methane in particular. Is painless killing of an animal that has led a good life acceptable? There’s an argument that it is, that at least they had a life, otherwise they wouldn’t have existed at all, so it’s not wrong. People are going to accept or reject that. There isn’t a clear-cut answer. It’s a complicated issue, so that’s why I tend to focus on the fact that large-scale commercial rearing of animals inevitably causes suffering for them and exploits them. Yes, they can come from very small farms where animals are looked after and cared for, but it won’t likely happen on a large commercial scale.

Is there a hierarchy of animals that might be ethically okay to eat?

I’m not really concerned about all animals in the zoological sense. I’m concerned about sentient beings or animals capable of suffering or enjoying their lives, and I don’t see that as necessarily coinciding with the boundary between plants and animals. So, oysters or clams or mussels, the simple bivalves, are clearly animals in zoological terms, but there’s good reason to believe that they don’t have a sufficiently complicated nervous system to feel pain, and if that’s the case, then I don’t think there’s an objection to eating those animals as long as they are farmed or raised in a sustainable way that doesn’t harm the environment.

Are you hopeful that more people will adopt ethical eating habits in the future?

The huge increase in the availability of vegan products pretty much around the world is a great sign of hope, because what we need to do is to reach a critical mass where these products are not only available, but are also comparative in cost with animal products. Once that day comes, I think we’ll get far more people switching, where they really don’t have to change their diet that much, they don’t have to spend that much more and they can avoid all these negative ethical aspects and be healthier themselves.

Sandra Yeyati, J.D., is a professional writer. Reach her at SandraYeyati@gmail.com.

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composting made Easy

Turn Food Waste into ‘black Gold’

Just 3 percent of uneaten food in the U.S. is composted, reported the natural Resources defense council in 2012. the remaining food scraps rotting in landfills account for 23 percent of U.S. methane emissions, a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more powerful than carbon monoxide in global warming. with minimal planning and effort, however, food scraps can be recycled through composting into an organic, highnutrient fertilizer. compost is called “black gold” for its high value in gardening, but it’s simply decayed organic material. consider all the organic materials that fall to the forest floor, break down and return to the earth. this process can be easily recreated at home.

To start composting, get a couple of containers.

n a covered kitchen bucket.

Beautiful containers abound, but an old pan will work. countertop positioning makes it easy to toss in kitchen scraps, but it could also be placed under the sink or in the freezer. a review of several options can be found at

TheSpruceEats.com. n a yard bin or pile. due to critters and pets, a lid is recommended. gardening stores sell compost bins, but they can be made using instructions at Homesteading.com. Bins in place, start collecting and piling. organic materials will break down—it’s just a matter of time. the pile should consist of yard waste (grass clippings, plant scraps, small sticks) and kitchen waste (peels, cores, eggshells, tea leaves, coffee grounds, bread). do not include invasive weeds, meat, bones, dairy products, oils or pet excrement. the basic recipe is a mix of nitrogen-rich/green materials (food waste, grass clippings, plant trimmings) and carbon-rich/brown materials (dried leaves, sticks, shredded newspaper or cardboard). Shoot for 25 percent green materials.

an unbalanced pile can be amended.

n If it’s wet, moldy or stinky, add more brown materials and stir with a pitchfork to increase oxygen flow and loosen the pile. n a pile that is too dry will take longer to break down. add kitchen scraps, green grass clippings or sprinkle with water to encourage microbial activity.

a balanced pile that is stirred or turned weekly will decay the fastest. Seeing worms and other soil organisms in the pile is a good sign that the process is working.

Finished compost looks like dark, rich soil. Spread it onto the garden in the spring. Scoop some into the holes for new plants. Side dress plants all season. compost releases nutrients gradually, improves soil condition and helps retain water. Plants thrive with better root systems. compost gardeners reap bountiful harvests.