The Ethical Dilemma Inherent in the Weekday Vegetarian Plan

Image courtesy of Christina Hoheisel
via Creative Commons.

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from The Ethical Dilemma Inherent in the Weekday Vegetarian Plan:

"At the recent TEDxDirigo conference, we watched a 4-minute TED talk, Why I’m a Weekday Vegetarian, by Treehugger.org founder Graham Hill. Hill explained why, despite everything he knows about the cruelty, health problems and environmental destruction associated with meat-eating, he wasn’t a vegetarian. 'Why was I stalling?' he asks in the face of the truth that 'my common sense and good intentions were in conflict with my tastebuds.'

"Hill’s answer is to become what he calls a 'weekday vegetarian,' someone who is vegetarian during the week and chooses whatever he or she wants on the weekend ....

"... I began thinking about how we would all react if we heard a talk by an activist working to end slavery who said that during the week she avoided chocolate produced through slave labor, but on weekends ate any chocolate she felt like. Or an environmentalist who said that during the week he only drove a Prius but on the weekend would drive a Hummer. I even imagined a man who spanks his kids, but is unable to resist coming to the decision – surely positive – that he’d only do it on the weekends and become a 'weekday good dad.'"

Read the complete essay.


For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach"

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