Mercy For Animals' Derek Coons recently had a chance to interview Dr. Peter Singer, who currently serves as the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's book Animal Liberation, first published in 1975, played a significant role in the formation and direction of the animal rights movement.
His writings for the past 30 years have addressed a wide range of ethical issues including animal exploitation, world poverty, and the environment.

	What prompted you to write Animal Liberation over 30 years ago?
	I tell that story in the preface of the book, but basically, it was the sense that the way we think of animals, and treat animals is terribly wrong, in much the way that racism and sexism are terribly wrong...So I wrote the book as a kind of wake-up call.

	In Animal Liberation, you write that the interests of human animals should be considered equal to the interests of non-human animals, based on the principle of “equal consideration of interests.” Can you explain what that means?
	It means that similar interests should get similar weight. If I inflict pain on an animal, that is, in itself, just as wrong as inflicting a similar amount of pain on a human being...

	In some of your writings, you have quoted Henry Sidgwick, in advocating that we “take the point of view of the universe.” What does this mean to you?
	Literally, of course, the universe has no point of view at all. But Sidgwick used the phrase to mean that when we think ethically, we should take the broadest possible view, thinking not of our own interests, nor of the interests of our tribe, sect, race or nation, or even our species. We should try to put ourselves in the position of every being affected by our actions. That means every being who can feel anything, who can suffer, or have experiences of any kind.

	In your opinion, what is the animal liberation movement doing correctly today and what is it doing wrong? How can we improve our effectiveness? Where do you think we should focus our efforts?
	There have been major improvements in the American animal movement in the last ten years. At least several major organizations are working together – although unfortunately, there are some that are still more concerned to attack other animal groups than to unite against the real enemy. Equally important, American animal groups are now focusing on what is, by far, the largest area of human-inflicted animal suffering – farmed animals, and especially factory farming. The number of animals involved in factory farming, and the prolonged nature of their suffering, dwarfs all other concerns.

Can you tell us about the new book you wrote with Jim Mason?

It’s called The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter and it uses three families, with different kinds of diet, to explore a variety of ethical questions about food – including, of course, the use of animals as food. But we also look at issues like: Is it better to eat organic food? Should we try to buy local food? Should we try to avoid GM (genetically modified) food? There are a lot of different questions, and we are trying to look at them as openly and objectively as possible.

	What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned while researching for this book?
	That virtually all turkeys raised in the U.S. today are the result of artificial insemination, because they have been bred with such large breasts that they can't breed naturally.

	Much of the book deals with where our food comes from, yet this is often a hard thing to find out. Did you have difficulty getting access to factory farms? Were stores and restaurants willing to tell you who their suppliers were?
	We had a lot of trouble with access - factory farms refused to allow us in, with one exception. Some farms, stores and restaurants were much readier to open their doors - but they were of course the smaller, organic farms, and the stores and restaurants they supply. Of the national chains, Whole Foods was very open, and so was Chipotle.

	What do you feel are the cruelest farming methods used today and why?
	The battery cage for laying hens, veal crates, and gestation crates - because they confine the animals so closely, for all or virtually all of their lives.

	Many people have an idealized view of organic animal farms. You visited an organic chicken farm in New Hampshire, and one of your researchers visited one in Virginia. What impressions did you and your researcher have of these farms?
	Well, they certainly aren't ideal. The organic egg producer (it wasn't a chicken farm, in the sense of producing chickens to eat) was open and welcoming, and his hens certainly had a far better life than caged hens do, but the birds were still basically living indoors, crowded into a very large shed.

	In the book, you discuss some of the impacts our diets can have on the environment. Can you describe what's at stake and what types of foods are the most environmentally-friendly?
	What's at stake is the future of our planet, because eating factory farmed animal products makes a big contribution to global warming. The most environmentally friendly way of eating is probably to grow your own, or get your food out of a supermarket dumpster - I tried that, in my research for the book - but for those who want to buy their food, the first rule is to avoid all factory farm products. After that, eat a largely or entirely plant-based diet, and buy locally and seasonally. Imported food can be OK if it was sent by ship, but air freight involves a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.