I nurtured my first book idea for fifteen years before it was published as The Sexual Politics of Meat. I learned the importance of incubation, of perseverance, and having faith in myself as a writer. My activism involves the heart-piercing experience of working for social justice (which includes justice for nonhuman animals) and against domestic violence, homelessness, racism, and violence against animals). Since 1996, I have maintained a daily journal practice that has transformed my writing and anchored my activism. For the first decade of the twenty-first century, I was deeply involved in providing care to three elderly people. I am currently completing a book about this experience, and wrote about it in an essay in Critical Inquiry.

I am often asked: How did I become a vegan? How did I write The Sexual Politics of Meat?  Recently, the artist Suzy Gonzalez created a wonderful animation that answers these questions, and others. I am so honored by her creativity!

I love cooking and sharing vegan meals, knowing that no animals were used in the preparation of the meal; in this way, cooking and sharing food embodies compassion.

I am a feminist-vegan advocate, activist, and independent scholar and the author of numerous books including The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, now in a Bloomsbury Revelations edition celebrating its 35th anniversary. It has been translated into German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish, and French. I am the co-editor of several important anthologies, including most recently Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth (with Lori Gruen)—a second, expanded edition appeared in 2022—and The Good it Promises; The Harm it Causes: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism published in 2023 (co-edited with Alice Crary and Lori Gruen The Carol J. Adams Reader: Writings and Conversations 1995-2015 appeared in the fall of 2016.

My writings are the subject of two recent anthologies, Defiant Daughters: 21 Women of Art, Activism, Animals, and The Sexual Politics of Meat and The Art of the Animal: 14 Women Artists Explore The Sexual Politics of Meat, in which new generations of feminists, artists, and activists respond to my book.

I have a Masters of Divinity from Yale University. In the 1970s, my spouse, the Rev. Bruce Buchanan, and I started a Hotline for Battered Women in Western New York. I am the author of Woman-Battering (1995) in Fortress Press’s Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling Series. With Marie Fortune, I edited Violence Against Women and Children: A Christian Theological Sourcebook (1995). I also wrote a training manual, Pastoral Care for Domestic Violence:  Case Studies for Clergy - for Christian Audiences - Training Manual (2007) published by the FaithTrust Institute. I wrote one of the earliest articles theorizing why batterers harm animals, “Woman-Battering and Harm to Animals" (in The Carol J. Adams Reader).

I am also the author of books on living as a vegan, including Never Too Late to Go Vegan: The Over-50 Guide to Adopting and Thriving on a Vegan Diet and Even Vegans Die: A Practical Guide to Caregiving, Acceptance, and Protecting Your Legacy of Compassion, (both with Patti Breitman and Virginia Messina). A new edition of Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian’s and Vegan’s Survival Handbook was published in 2023.