I loved and will always love Kevin Fisher-Paulson, even though his "Be kind" supplication to us didn't include be kind to factory-farmed animals.  There was a lovely reception after the service for him at The Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church at 100 Diamond yesterday.  There was nothing vegan.

I know he had at least one vegan friend.  Did that friend die?  He once said that he'd be at the home of a vegan on Thanksgiving Day, so he would probably be pushing tofu around his plate--an unfortunate stereotype of vegans.  Here's the passage:  I'm writing a separate tribute to Kevin Fisher-Paulson, but here I'll just say that "courage to change" can apply to diet,and saying that Mr. Sasb has turned vegan "as part of his midlife crisis" does not show how enlightened Kevin Fisher-Paulson was in most ways.

November 21, 2017

I want to be grateful for tradition, but what I really should be grateful for is the courage to change. We’ve transplanted Thanksgiving this year. Since 2001, we’ve hosted an orphan holiday in the blue bungalow, but for the first time ever, our boys are spending the fourth Thursday in November at the Sasbs, who have seen each and every one of our mood swings, and yet still invited us to break bread. As part of his midlife crisis, Mr. Sasb has turned vegan, and despite all my assurances that the turkey himself was a strict vegetarian, so certainly the meat would be vegan, it is likely that I will be pushing a hunk of tofu around my plate tomorrow.

It's surprising that the best-stated reason for choosing vegan comes from a cookie company!  I'm disappointed that these cookies are no longer sold at the Opera Plaza Cinema and that the Embarcadero Cinema, where they were sold, closed down.  I remember how surprised I was years ago when I asked, "Do you have any vegan cookies?" and the person behind the concession stand said, "All of our cookies are vegan."  Brave new world!

But at least there's a place in SF where I can get them--George's Zoo, 2650 Sloat Blvd!

 

 

Regarding Aviva Bechky's article "Sonoma loves its farms. Activists call them factories. Could a ballot measure upend this county?"

I don't blame Mike Weber for doing what we've normalized--treating farm animals as a commodity--and he at least gives some of his chickens some chance to follow their instincts.  That may be true of his dairy cows too.  I doubt that Proposition J will pass in Sonoma because animal-eaters choose to ignore how sentient beings suffer if the sentient beings aren't human or the animals they've chosen as pets. I believe that someday we'll look back in horror at factory farms, but that probably won't come about because of concern for animals.  It will probably be for environmental reasons.  Instead of the government's subsidizing the products from factory farms, they'll start educating people on the atrocities involved and the environmental damage done.  

Even people who consider themselves progressive are resistant to change when it comes to their eating habits.  But paying taxes in the US, we're funding animal agriculture.  For every $100 we pay in taxes, about 50 cents goes directly to funding factory farming,  a cruel, unhealthy practice.  

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/sonoma-farms-measure-j-19607917.php