Oct28
Natalie Portman on Why She Went Vegan
Posted at 04:37 PM | Permalink
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In an essay posted on HuffingtonPost.com, Natalie Portman explains that after reading an advance copy of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book, Eating Animals, she went "from a twenty-year vegetarian to a vegan activist." Whoa, props to you, Jonathan (and to Portman, too, of course).
What exactly caused Portman to go from not eating animals to not eating anything stolen from them (e.g., eggs and milk), either? Ironically, it was the cost to humans of exploiting animals. In Foer's book, he talks at length about the environmental devastation wreaked by factory farming as well as the deadly bacteria and other diseases that fester in the filthy conditions on factory farms. Portman was so fired up about these issues that she used the "S" word—twice. "Factory farming of animals," she says, "will be one of the things we look back on as a relic of a less-evolved age."
Coincidentally, an essay by Foer himself (the first in a two-part series) was posted today on CNN.com. In it, he talks about the link between the surge in antibiotic-resistant bacteria and—surprise!—the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics on factory farms. Did you know that eight times as many antibiotics are fed to factory-farmed animals as are taken by humans? Yeah, me neither.
Both pieces are great reading—and they're apparently getting people thinking: Natalie Portman's essay has already generated more than 1,000 comments. You can read Portman's essay here and Foer's essay here. Eating Animals hits bookstores next week.
Posted by Alisa Mullins
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Comments
Good for you, it is true that the environmental consequences are horrid. I just went vegan because the male cattle born on a "Pretty" farm in NH are sold to a slaughterhouse because they don't make any money for the farm. Meanwhile, dairy cows there are artificially inseminated and the babies are taken away from them at a few hours old. I LOVE ALL ANIMALS and do not need to eat them or what they would provide.
Posted by: lisa | October 28, 2009 07:23 PM
La Portman is a brilliant, lovely and benevolent vegan indeed !
Posted by: Brien Comerford | October 28, 2009 08:05 PM
I am definetly going to read this book. & what a beautiful picture!
Posted by: Aneliese | October 28, 2009 11:57 PM
Natalie Portman has always taken the high road as an artist. I will always always honor her for the role in V for Vendetta and Cold Mountain.
She's a terrific person as well as a very talented actor.
Posted by: r | October 29, 2009 10:34 AM
good news, ive got an idea i want to pass on, on telephone polls put this website on. reform march of dimes.org & mrmcmed.org
Posted by: 4mula1 | October 29, 2009 05:17 PM
I believe she ate butter on Top Chef? Last time I checked, that's not vegan.
Posted by: H | October 30, 2009 12:40 PM
H, she may have ate butter as she wasn't Vegan then. That was done a while before she read this book. She has been and on and off again vegan over the years, but now it seems she is fully vegan.
Posted by: Farnod | November 6, 2009 07:21 PM