Moby: The Soft-Spoken Animal Activist

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Moby's 1999 album Play is one of the greatest albums of all time. And, according to his twitter, @thelittleidiot, Moby might be my soulmate. While browsing his twitter feed, I found that Moby loves The Paris Review, but he also liked Eat Pray Love. He plays online scrabble, he tweets articles about cupcakes, he takes his tea without sugar. And he's a longtime vegan and animal rights activist.

This morning Moby tweeted a reminder that he is playing an acoustic show benefiting Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in New York this Saturday, September 25.

Moby also tweets about the book he co-edited, Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety (Thinking Twice About the Meat We Eat). Gristle is a collection of essays written by animal advocates and food experts, from John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, to Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society of the United States. The book is a careful, concise look at the factory farming industry, and is definitely worth reading. Plus, all profits from the book will go to animal welfare organizations, including HSUS.

Moby has been a vegan for twenty years, before many people even knew what the word meant. Animal activism has always been a part of his music, he even recorded an album called Animal Rights in 1996. And every copy of Play came with an informative pamplet about animal welfare. Play currently holds the record for the best-selling Electronica album.

When he isn't playing music, Moby regularly gives interviews highlighting his vegan lifestyle, even allowing New York Magazine's Grub Street column to publish his food diary. Moby told the magazine that he's given up proselytizing veganism, stating that he "had a long period of being very annoying, but it didn't really help." Instead of being self-righteous and strident, Moby now tries "to be a nondidactic, almost apologetic vegan."

Moby's marketing team may not have gotten the message on Moby's new soft-spoken, non-self-congratulatory approach, because Moby is hailed as the "world's most famous vegan" on Gristle's website, and his own website sells "Moby for President" t-shirts.

Moby should not run for office, and he certainly isn't the world's most famous vegan, but he needn't apologize for his veganism either. After all, it's what I like most about him.

Photo Credit: uncensored interview