World Vegan Radio Interview with Dr. Steve Best

Below is an interview with Dr. Steve Best.  This is an excerpt from WKPFT World Vegan Radio in Houston.  The co-host who conducts this interview is Antenteh Roba, M.D.,  Founder and Executive Director of International Fund for Africa.


While many have differing, and often negative views of Best, I found his messages in this interview worthy of consideration.


I too agree that it is dangerous when free and "progressed" countries ban political thought if it is deemed "radical".  Steve Best has been forbidden entry into the U.K. due to his controversial views and outspoken advocacy regarding social justice and animal rights issues.  Shouldn't speech be protected not just when it suggests mundane ideas - but also "unpopular" ones as well?  But this gagging of contentious ideology is exactly what the U.S. is attempting to do too as explained in Muzzling a Movement: The Effects of Anti-Terrorism Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism by Dara Lovitz.  


I particularly like his insights on Animal Standpoint Theory and how we can learn so much from these most oppressed beings by viewing historical conditions through their lens of relentless human domination and marginalization.




Best also elaborates on his fears of the vegan movement becoming elitist in advocating to white, middle-class Western cultures as the rest of the world is rushing towards our gluttonous consumption habits. To which I provide just a handful of examples that illustrate how globally, our movement to end/reduce "meat" consumption has been pathetically ineffectual:




Rapid growth of pork production in Ukraine
//19 Jul 2011

In the first five months of 2011 the total pork production in Ukraine increased by 45% compared to same period of the last year.


US, Mexico sign trucking agreement - NPPC pleased
//07 Jul 2011
Mexico is the second largest market for the US pork industry, which shipped $986 million of pork south of the border in 2010. Since 1993 – the year before NAFTA was implemented – US pork exports to Mexico have increased by 780 percent.

From the Bangkok Post

Dairy Queen and Burger King speeding up expansion Two food chains under Minor Food Group Dairy Queen and Burger King aim to expand their businesses faster in the second half of this year to respond to the public's greater spending power. Beef export sales 38 percent higher led by Japan and Mexico Beef export sales were 6,493 metric tons higher last week led by shipments to Japan (4,200 MT) and Mexico (4,100 MT). Vietnam, South Korea and Canada also contributed to the United States’ higher export sales. Audio: Beef exports to Hong Kong booming U.S. beef exports to Hong Kong are reaching new heights in 2011. Through the first five months of the year, exports have more than doubled in volume to 50.8 million pounds and increased 140 percent in value to just over $100 million. Dairy Herd Magazine “The United States has reached a tipping point where dairy exporting is no longer an option but a necessity,” And here as Dr. Anteneh Roba mentions in the interview with Steve Best are the problems created in Africa due to the expansion of factory farming. Of course the consequences to human and nonhuman alike are incalculable. I wanted to call attention to these matters to explain my reasoning in not proclaiming "victory" to the proposed larger cages for hens that may (or may not) happen in a decade or so... I wanted to restate my conviction to the abolition of cages, factory farms and slaughterhouses all together.  I wanted to re-align myself with the reality that education and "welfare measures" will not influence the world towards a more compassionate diet in any quantifiable way.   We must become more outspoken in our personal lives and publicly/politically challenge the notion that everything and everyone on Earth is up for grabs as a "resource". We mustn't become complacent just because we have, "our family" has, "our community" or "our country" has become vegan. If indeed we are ever so fortunate to be ever be able to say these things at all - It will not be enough!    Acting individually and locally is a necessary start - but we mustn't settle until the world embraces all social justice issues. We, our nonhuman kin and the sake of the planet urgently depend on us to have this uncompromising goal - Or all is lost. "One cannot change destructive policies without changing the institutions and power systems that cause, benefit from, and sustain them.  An effective struggle for animal liberation, then, means tackling issues such as poverty, class, political corruption, and ultimately the inequalities created by transnational corporations and globalization." ~Steve Best  Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume V, Issue 2, 2007 For those courageous enough now, and to legions more in the future, who dare to expose and topple the underpinnings of the systematized oppression of the forgotten and disenfranchised - I for one, know you do so, because there is no other way.

Full radio show here at the KPFT archives
http://www.drstevebest.org/
http://drstevebest.wordpress.com/
International Fund for Africa
Globalization of Factory Farms at Brighter Green