Hello

My name is Leonardo Thomson and I’m a 17-year-old high school student from Edinburgh, Scotland. I was born in Canada, and after living in Toronto for 10 months, my family moved to Switzerland for work. We stayed there for 6 years before migrating to Scotland, where we live today.

​

My plant-based journey started as soon as I was able to eat solid food as a baby; I was raised on a vegetarian diet by my mother, who had already been vegetarian for 20 years at the time. Just 3 years ago, after watching an eye-opening documentary called Land of Hope and Glory about factory farming and a lot of research, I decided that vegetarianism wasn’t enough for me: I wanted to go vegan.

​

My family were skeptical at first, but after some persuasion, they came to understand the reasons behind my choice. Ethics was my primary motivator, but I soon learned about the environmental and health implications of animal agriculture – this was a significant turning point in my life.

 

After talking to many people about their food choices, it became clear that most people have strong emotional ties to the food they eat and are understandably resistant to arguments, regardless of how well-reasoned, that challenge their eating practices. This is true across the spectrum from meat lovers to vegans. So I created this blog with the goal of objectively analyzing the food choices people make and to develop a reason-based framework to guide decisions about eating choices. The common theme is the relevance of ethical philosophy to human diets, but the philosophical implications go beyond food as you will see in the posts.

 

It isn't always easy being vegan and I’m sometimes ridiculed for my choices, but I don’t take this with a heavy heart. My experience has helped me realize the lack of fluency surrounding plant-based diets and the opportunity to educate people. I strongly believe that anyone can be convinced to go vegan or vegetarian if they have the right guidance and resources and my goal is therefore to help people along their journey towards meaningful change.

 

Outside of academics, I enjoy competitive Rugby, Bagpiping and Canoe Trips in remote areas of Canada.