Michael Devine's profile

More About Me

Reasons why I prefer to eat vegetarian or vegan:

Both political and practical, though I loathe doctrinaire pedants and people who proselytise or patronise...politically because meat uses up so much energy and so many finite resources; because most meat eaters seldom have any relationship with the animal they are eating, i.e. they do not know where it comes from or how it's been treated and processed; spiritually because it doesn't feel right to eat anything with a face, though I respect the fact that humans are predators; practically because men who insist on a meat-heavy diet open themselves up to the certainty of obesity, various cancers and digestive tract disorders and "meat thinking".

I joined HappyCow Members Community because:

I travel five to six months of the year, primarily in central and eastern Europe. It can get very lonely for a vegetarian there! It is nice to know there are like-minded people out there, more knowledgeable than I, who can support me in my choices wherever I am!

Here are some places I've been that I liked... and places that I would like to visit one day:

Faves from where I've been... Ottawa, Athens, Budapest, Sarajevo, Berlin,Sibiu, Prague, Belgrade, Krakow, Plovdiv, Toronto, Havana, Barcelona, Montreal, Dubrovnik, Jerusalem Places I'd like to go...Tibet, anywhere in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Russia

Some of my favorite veg*n foods include:

Eggplant parmagiana; penne arrabiata (w/o the meat!); baked sweet potatoes; gazpacho

Here are some books, movies, magazines, and my favorites that I would recommend to other HappyCow members:

You are all more knowledgeable than me about veganism/vegetarianism so I'll confine myself to one from my area of specialisation, a series of essays, actually. Friedrich von Schiller, in addition to being a great dramatist, a soldier, a trained doctor, and a poet responsible for the "Ode to Joy", wrote some of the most profound and penetrating works on the nature and uses of morality in the theatre.