The Vegetarian Myth

This book had a lot of insight into how devastating agriculture has been to our planet, humans and in particular, the author. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who thinks eating vegan is a good idea. However, I don't think all of her proposals at the end are really the answer, but the earlier points in the book are certainly things we need to answer as a civilization if we want to survive.

First, the caveats: yes, this is a popular science book, written by a non-scientist for a non-scientist audience. There are plenty of conclusions that essentially boil down to emotions. It is, however, well researched, with many good sources.

Keith was a vegan for many years and there are parts that slip in to a familiar cadence of appeals to pity, only with a different point of view. This makes sense, as the book is at least partly aimed at vegans, vegetarians, and former vegan/vegetarians.

The basic takeaway of the book is that vegans do /not/ have a clear cut moral high ground, it's not as simple as “cute fuzzy animals are not food.” Not to be too simplistic, but humans are part of a larger system, we can't remove ourselves from that - all life requires death. The most compelling parts of the book are those that delve in to agricultural systems, the history of them, and how they operate today. It fits in nicely with Michael Pollan's work (Pollan is referenced on occasion, as well as Joel Salatin), with a slightly different angle, definitely more doom and gloom.

I finished the book still thinking about many topics. I wouldn't say it left me utterly changed, I knew a good amount of this already, but it brought up some difficult realities that most of us choose to ignore, and we're privileged enough to have that option for now. I recommend it, with the caveat that there are a handful of places where it made me roll my eyes.