It's a great day when the American Public Media radio show Marketplace diverts its gaze from the stock market to notice things like the food crisis—and an even better day when it invites Princeton University bioethicist Peter Singer to talk about something other than whether the Machiavellians among us should invest in corn futures.

Earlier this week, the man who is considered by many to be the father of the modern-day animal liberation movement (and author of Animal Liberation) argued that the solution to the food crisis is as close as our dinner plates. Giving props to PETA's in vitro meat contest, Singer pointed out that environmental realities would force a change in the wasteful and inefficient meat-centered diet, whether we like it or not.

Listen to or read Singer's commentary here.

Posted by Grace Freidan

Saturday night, PETA campaigner Matt Rice was in Louisville, KY, with a giant crippled chicken to protest at a Yum Brands (the parent company of KFC) fundraiser at CEO David Novak’s house. The shindig was supposedly to fight global hunger, which is totally laughable. Global hunger isn’t laughable of course, but KFC pretending to give a hoot about it is. Let’s be real here: since it takes several pounds of wholesome grain to produce a single pound of unhealthy chicken meat, KFC does more to contribute to global hunger than it does to stop it. KFC holding a fundraiser to fight global hunger is like Marlboro holding a fundraiser to fight lung cancer. The WorldWatch Institute puts it like this, “[M]eat consumption is an inefficient use of grain—the grain is used more efficiently when consumed directly by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat-eaters and the world’s poor.”

Oh yeah, we were also there to remind consumers to boycott KFC until it takes the advice of its own animal welfare panel to end the worst abuses of chickens by its suppliers.

Here are a couple of photos from the evening.