Barefoot Vegan Mag Jan_Feb 2017

Tell us a bit about yourself… How did you
become vegan?
I’m a writer, activist and speaker who grew up working in
publishing and advertising where I got a behind-thescenes
perspective on the image building industries and
how they influence the public. I became vegan in 2009
after watching some documentaries, such as Food Inc.
For anyone that doesn’t know about Free
from Harm, can you explain about the
work you do?
We’re a non-profit founded in 2009 and dedicated to farm
animal education and advocacy. Our vision is a world
where non-human animals are no longer exploited and
made to suffer to serve some human end. We live in an age
when this is finally possible and we should celebrate that.
What inspired you to write Farm to Fable?
And what do you hope it will achieve?
Farm to Fable is the culmination of years of exploring the
fictions of animal consumption from the perspective of a
branding and marketing person who has worked on the
inside to see how these fictions are created and how they
function once they’re out there for the public to digest. I
realised early on that even vegans were, to varying degrees,
under the spell of these fictions and some animal groups
even use them in their campaigns. So I felt compelled to
write a book in the hopes that it would bring a much
needed awareness to the vegan community as well as
the public at large. For the general public, my hope is
that the book will prompt them to question what
appears to be “normal” in their everyday lives, to look
more critically at what they see in the grocery stores and
restaurants, what they see on TV and online. I hope that
they might better see how we are being manipulated to
make food choices that ultimately betray our core values
of kindness, reciprocity and decency.
From all the examples of fictional stories
we are told about consuming animal
products that are featured in the book,
which do you feel is the most dangerous
and why?
Consent is the foundation. Consent has us believing that
animals are willing participants in whatever it is we
want to do with them, that they willingly sacrifice
themselves for some greater human purpose. We say
that they give us their eggs, their secretions, their bodies
and even their lives. Of course we know that animals are
not only incapable of giving their consent; they clearly
indicate their resistance to domination and will fight
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