AR recap + new website

I hesitate to continue to apologize for not being on time with my posts. In the future, I believe I will stop making pre-planned announcements and continue to post as I see fit. It seems to have worked well that way for the past year. Moving forward, Animal Rights 2008 was fantastic. There were tons of great speakers, interesting food, and lots of attendees. The most exciting part of the whole conference was actually meeting all of the people who are involved in the movement and sensing that you are not alone in your actions and opinions.

The big debate this year was welfarism vs. abolition. If you are not familiar, the premise is that those within the animal rights movement are beginning to question whether welfare reforms, such as the switch to controlled atmospheric killing, will result in animal liberation in the future and may they actually inhibit the process? The abolitionist approach basically takes the stance that those within the movement should not be supporting actions which ultimately make the statement that it is okay to continue to consume animals, or that certain practices are preferred over others.

It's much more complicated than that and both sides have valid, logical arguments which I suggest you further explore if you're interested. I will say this- my stance at this point is firmly in the middle. I cannot currently justify that one supercedes the other.

The most interested part of the conference for me was the food. Based largely on processed foods such as vegan meats, cheeses and junk foods, I will say it was definitely outside of my regular diet. The request for the conference was vegan food, not health food though. Processed as most of it may have been, it was delicious and exciting to taste many foods that reminded me of my pre-vegan days such as vegan ice-cream cones, grilled cheeses, and even stuffed "chicken" breasts. Here's a peek of what we had during the big banquet dinner:



All in all, I would say the conference was a great experience and I would suggest it to anyone interested in attending next year. I will surely be there and it will be in Los Angeles.

As you may have noticed, if you visit my website directly via www.eatingconsciously.com, my new website is now up. Please offer any thoughts/suggestions you may have. It is designed to inform people and promote the services I have to offer surrounding vegan nutrition.

Sorry for the delay in posting and look forward to some great recipes coming up very soon!

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