A.F.A.R.
Wednesday February 21st, 2024 with Carolyn Harris
This week, the vegan sociologist and animal rights advocate Roger Yates returns to the show to discuss the Vegan Information Project (which he co-founded in 2013), veganism as a holistic social justice movement, and the importance of grassroots activism.

This week, I am pleased to present my seventh interview with the sociologist and animal rights advocate Roger Yates, who has been a vegan since 1979. Roger’s 2005 PhD dissertation focused on the social construction of speciesism. In the 1980's, he was a Press Officer for the Animal Liberation Front, and in 2013 he co-founded the Vegan Information Project (also known as VIP) in Ireland. He has a blog, social media accounts, and a YouTube channel, where he advocates for veganism and animal rights from an abolitionist perspective. In this interview, Roger outlines the history and philosophy of the Vegan Information Project, and he emphasizes the importance of understanding and challenging cultural speciesism as vegan advocates. He also speaks about the ethical and practical issues surrounding money in the animal advocacy movement, and why vegan advocates are sometimes accused of "forcing" our views on non-vegans. We discuss the importance of viewing veganism as a movement for holistic social justice, and we share our views about some of the things we'd like to see the vegan movement do differently in 2024 and beyond. Roger Yates's blog can be found at https://onhumanrelationswithothersentientbeings.weebly.com/the-blog. The Always for Animal Rights blog can be found at https://alwaysforanimalrights.blogspot.com/.