Finally, a sensible vegetarian speaks truth to reality. Nicolette Hahn Niman writes: "As any attentive observer of nature knows, life feeds on life. Every living thing, from mammals, birds, and fish to plants, fungi, and bacteria, eats other living things. Humans are part of the food web; but for the artifices of cremation and tightly sealed caskets, all of us would eventually be recycled into other life forms. It is natural for people, like other omnivores, to participate in this web by eating animals. And it is ethically defensible -- provided we refrain from causing gratuitous suffering. ... Concerns about health, the environment, and ethical eating do not require giving up meat. What they do require is a new ethics of eating animals: one rooted in moderation, mindfulness, and respect." Amen. (By the way, the sign the lettuce-clad woman is carrying in the above photo reads: "Vegetarians Taste Better." The polar bear is thinking: "Yum, I bet she does." Heh.)
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