This piece for CNN has already generated so much criticism which completely misrepresents the article that I feel it necessary to point out to anyone interested in reading it that it should be clear that I do not support any cruelty to any animals and I do not defend the festival.
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Most of us can honestly say we have no desire to be on the cover of Hello! magazine, yet almost all of us crave recognition, believing that it validates our endeavours. A myth of our age is that talent, dedication and ambition bring such recognition – and its associated rewards – in gastronomy as in everything else. Tiziano Gérard is living proof that this just isn’t true
ReadGenuinely free markets are not the enemies of a sound food economy. The problem is with under-regulated markets. To some ‘regulated market’ is an oxymoron, but this is a historical and factual mistake. Free does mean unfettered but free from distortion by manipulation or misinformation. That is why Adam Smith, for example, favoured breaking up monopolies and cartels. Markets need to be regulated in order to be free, fair and sustainable.
ReadWhenever western meat-eaters get up in arms over barbarous foreigners eating cute animals, it’s easy to throw around accusations of gross hypocrisy. Easy, because such accusations are often true. But responses to the dog meat festival in Yulin, China, which draws to a close today, merit more careful consideration. The double standards at play here are numerous, complicated, and not always obvious…
ReadVegetarians have tended to see themselves as on the side of history, in the vanguard of moral progress. In their imagined future, meat-eating would be seen as being as barbarous as slavery, racism, homophobia and the subjugation of women. It seems much more likely, however, that we have already passed “peak vegetarianism” and that the movement has grown as large as it ever will.
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