The Meat of the Matter by George Monbiot

What will future generations, looking back on our age, see as its monstrosities? We think of slavery, the subjugation of women, judicial torture, the murder of heretics, imperial conquest and genocide, the First World War and the rise of fascism, and ask ourselves how people could have failed to see the horror of what they did. What madness of our times will revolt our descendants?

George Monbiot - what madness will revolt our descendants?

There are plenty to choose from. But one of them, I believe, will be the mass incarceration of animals, to enable us to eat their flesh or eggs or drink their milk. While we call ourselves animal lovers, and lavish kindness on our dogs and cats, we inflict brutal deprivations on billions of animals, that are just as capable of suffering. The hypocrisy is so rank that future generations will marvel at how we could have failed to see it.

The shift will occur with the advent of cheap artificial meat. Technological change has often helped to catalyse ethical change. The $300m deal China signed last month, to buy lab-grown meat, marks the beginning of the end of livestock farming. But it won’t happen quickly: the great suffering is likely to continue for many years.

Read the piece by Guardian columnist, George Monbiot - “The Meat of the Matter.”

On Hurricanes and Hypocrisy

Floods have killed over 1,200 Nepal and Bangladesh in a disastrous South Asian monsoon. Meanwhile, Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm ever recorded over the Atlantic Ocean, has destroyed 90% of structures on Barbuda making the nation ‘practically uninhabitable’. Millions of people have been displaced by the effects of climate change, and it’s only time before millions more will need to look towards finding a new home.

Haiti — Hurricane Matthew.

This, combined with the news of Myanmar’s religious genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, and the ever increasing death tolls in Syria and Afghanistan… there has never been a more appropriate time to demand that we in the West start welcoming people into our country. I believe it is, in fact, our moral duty to offer a home to those who seek asylum.

Read Katherine Sylwester’s story on Voices of the Revolution - “On Hurricanes and Hypocrisy.”