So, our university is bringing Peter Singer to give a talk on the ethics of eating (based on what he writes about in his newest book, The Way We Eat--Why Our Food Choices Matter.  His lecture is tomorrow and I'm also attending a q and a section after the lecture.  And tonight, our bioethics club is having dinner with him at a local vegan restaurant!  I'm pretty gosh darn excited.  And this is the first university function where I can eat all the food AND have dessert!

I know that there is a lot of controversy surrounding Peter Singer and his various philosophies (I agree with him on a lot, but not all, of his views), but I'm really glad that our university is bringing someone to talk about the ethical dimensions of food and how we have a moral obligation (to other humans, the planet, and non-human animals) to be aware of how our food is produced and ensure good animal welfare practices, but also to reduce our overall consumption, buy fair trade products, and buy locally.  Despite all the controversy, Singer has been a huge influence on the animal rights/welfare movement  as well as promoting the belief that we have a moral obligation to give to those who are not well-off (he's donating his entire lecture monies--$20,000!--to OxFam, an org. that he gives a lot of money to). 

I'm also excited because I feel like a lot of my peers (i.e. the ones in my dept. and in the club) think I'm extreme for being vegan.  Hopefully this talk will show people that veg*n lifestyles are not only obtainable, but also possibly necessary. 

Any burning (but polite) questions anyone would like me to try to as him?  I think I'm going to see what his views are on pet foods, since that seems to be a hot topic with this board as well as veg*ns in general.  I don't want this thread to turn into a debate (that's what happened last time I mentioned Singer coming to our school), but feel free to start a thread on the debate board about Singer's philosophies.  He's quite the interesting individual.