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Vegan advocate, author and academic Dr. Melanie Joy will be releasing a new book this year.
The tome, entitled Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters, comes out in paperback in November.
Dr. Melanie Joy
Harvard-educated Joy is best-known for her book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, which examines ‘carnism’ – ‘the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals’.
According to Dr. Joy: “Carnism is essentially the opposite of veganism, as ‘carn’ means ‘flesh’ or ‘of the flesh’ and ‘ism’ refers to a belief system.”
Dr. Joy, who lives in Berlin with husband Sebastian Joy, has inspired many with her TEDx talk on carnism – which is in the top one per cent of the most-viewed TEDx talks of all time.
Her work has been featured by leading global media outlets including the BC, ABC Australia, NPR, and the New York Times, and she gives talks and presentations about veganism and advocacy all around the world – recently with the Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy [CEVA].
Dr. Joy is also the eighth recipient of the Institute of Jainology’s Ahimsa Award, which was previously awarded to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.
Beyond Carnism
Dr. Melanie Joy is also the President of Beyond Carnism – a US-based, international organization ‘dedicated to exposing and transforming carnism, the invisible belief system that conditions people to eat certain animals’.
The organization – which comprises a number of prolific vegan advocates – aims to ’empower concerned citizens and vegan advocates through education and activism, to help create a more compassionate and just world for all beings, human and nonhuman alike’.
The book
According to the publisher: “Vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters can feel like they’re living in different worlds.
“Many vegans and vegetarians struggle to feel understood and respected in a meat-eating culture, where some of their most pressing concerns and cherished beliefs are invisible, and where they are often met with defensiveness when they try to talk about the issue.”
“They can become frustrated and struggle to feel connected with meat eaters. And meat eaters can feel disconnected from vegans and vegetarians whose beliefs they don’t fully understand and whose frustration may spill over into their interactions.
“The good news is that relationship and communication breakdown among vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters is not inevitable, and it is reversible. With the right tools, healthy connections can be cultivated, repaired, and even strengthened.”
Dr. Melanie Joy provides actionable advice in the book, so that readers can work on creating healthy relationships, as well as helping the reader identify how the psychology of eating (or not eating) meat affects how you relate with other people.
Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters, comes out in paperback in November.
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