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The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability |  | Author: Lierre Keith
Publisher: PM Press
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
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Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 4446
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 1604860804
Dewey Decimal Number: 613
EAN: 9781604860801
ASIN: 1604860804
Publication Date: May 1, 2009
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| • | ISBN13: 9781604860801 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Part memoir, nutritional primer, and political manifesto, this controversial examination exposes the destructive history of agriculture—causing the devastation of prairies and forests, driving countless species extinct, altering the climate, and destroying the topsoil—and asserts that, in order to save the planet, food must come from within living communities. In order for this to happen, the argument champions eating locally and sustainably and encourages those with the resources to grow their own food. Further examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of both human and environmental health, the account goes beyond health choices and discusses potential moral issues from eating—or not eating—animals. Through the deeply personal narrative of someone who practiced veganism for 20 years, this unique exploration also discusses alternatives to industrial farming, reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 45
 Beyond Pollan May 25, 2009
D. Levi (New York)
105 out of 145 found this review helpful
If I say that this book saved my life, I risk only slight exaggeration. After suffering with asthma for thirty years, I've now been completely free of it for over four months (btw, I got an advance copy... obviously, the book just came out). My last trip to the emergency room was only two years ago. I was on two maintenance medications until I read this book. I had already weened myself off a third, but multiple attempts to get off the other two met with failure. I was more than a little intrigued when I came across the part where Ms. Keith describes how the lectins in wheat can cause and/or intensify inflammatory diseases, including Crohn's Disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and asthma. I decided to make a few changes in my diet, including cutting out all grain. Right around then, I ran out of my asthma meds, so I decided to hold off on calling in new ones. I never needed them. Having nearly died of asthma more than once, I cannot say how grateful I am to Lierre Keith. I was not on the brink of dying of asthma, but it certainly was awful, and might eventually have killed me.
Aside from my remarkable recovery from asthma, I found the book enlightening, moving, and fun. Keith makes, in my opinion, a sound argument that agriculture itself is inherently destructive. Note that she defines agriculture, appropriately I believe, as the monocropping of annuals (i.e. endless rows of wheat or corn or soy or whatever). Indigenous humans planted seeds tens of thousands of years before the "agricultural revolution," perhaps even before we were homo sapiens. But planting seeds here and there, encouraging the growth of desired plants, encouraging permacultures of diverse perennial plants, fungus, animals, and microorganisms all intertwined, is all quite different from seizing a given piece of land, clearing every living thing off of it (a euphemism for killing every living thing), and then planting rows of annuals (usually grains) on the exposed and dying topsoil. That is agriculture. And while there are relatively better and worse ways of doing it, it is fundamentally and universally unsustainable. This is why agricultural societies expand... to take over new land and resources to exploit as they draw down what they already possess. This is why they create myths of apocalypse. Topsoil needs to be covered, and it needs a diverse community of life forms to live on it and in it, each contributing nutrients, structure, and protection. Clear the land for agriculture and it will eventually die unless it is reverted to a polyculture based on perennials. The wind and rain will erode it. The monocrops will strip the nutrients. The sun will bake it. Riverwater for irrigation will introduce trace mineral salts that will build up and gradually sterilize it. Any of these factors would suffice to kill the land, but together they make the inevitable all the more inevitable. Look at the "Fertile Crescent," the cradle of agriculture. Not so fertile these days. The same thing happened in Greece. The same thing is happening in the USA. The Dust Bowl should have been warning enough. Only now, with synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, chemical pesticides and herbicides, 2/3's of the topsoil and groundwater stripped from the Great Plains, a human population of nearly seven billion, 100-200 species going extinct every day, a couple hundred major "dead zones" in the oceans (mostly at the mouths of rivers churning out fertilizer and pesticide runoff), and the planet on the verge of runaway global warming, the stakes are rather higher.
Lierre Keith is a beautiful writer, careful researcher, passionate and compassionate advocate for the disenfranchised (human and non-human), brave iconoclast (arguing, very effectively, that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol can actually be good for you--if they're from pastured animals--and are precisely the kind of stuff we evolved to eat), and unflinching opponent of the systems that are destroying life on this planet, including extractive agriculture, most especially in its industrialized form.
Michael Pollan has reached a very wide audience, and while I wish all those Pollan readers would pick up this book, I doubt that most will. Pollan has done great work exposing the insanity of industrial agriculture (including industrial "organics"), and has been a great promoter of small-scale, local farming, especially based on rotational grazing, the sustainable model Keith advocates, too. What Pollan lacks (in his bestselling books, at least) is a cogent political, social, or historical analysis to help us understand our ecocidal food production system in an appropriate context. He also offers no call to actively oppose, let alone dismantle, the ecocidal system, seeming content with encouraging niche markets for enlightened consumers. Frankly, with the planet dying, that is just not enough. If Pollan is this generation's Wendell Berry and Derrick Jensen is this generation's Edward Abbey, Lierre Keith finally links the two strands, showing beyond any shadow of a doubt that the very foundation of civilization as such, and most especially industrial civilization, is a method of food procurement that is insane, ecocidal, and really, really dumb. And it sure isn't making us happy or healthy either.
Vegans, vegetarians, please read this book. I know you don't want to. But please read it. Ms. Keith was a vegan for two decades, and knows what that diet can do to a person. Let yourself learn from her mistakes, and be open to learning about why vegan and vegetarian foods are not the responsible, sustainable choices, least of all grains and soy, the twin staples of the modern vegetarian diet. Of course the worst food out there is meat and animal foods from feed lots. Ms. Keith hates these as much as anyone. She is not advocating that anyone eat such poison, such misery.
In sum, I don't want to one-up Diana, but this is one of the THREE most important books I've ever read (for what it's worth, Jensen's Endgame and Bly's Iron John are the other two). I cannot recommend it more highly.
This is delicious. Have some. February 6, 2010
John Locke
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Why is it that when you eat those ninety nine percent fat free Yoplait yogurts that come in unnatural flavors like boo berry crunch or coffee banana, you don't really feel like the women in the Yoplait commercials who act like their practically having an orgasm when consuming this tasteless, bland, pretty nasty fat free mush that's loaded with artificial sugars, sweeteners, hfcs and saccharin? And afterwards, you don't really feel guilt free. You just feel hungry. You feel like roaming around looking for subsidence. You might binge on the empty calories of Wheat Thins or chocolate doughnuts which starts off a vicious cycle of nutrient deficiencies. The more you binge on junk, the more nutritionally deficient you become.
Try a lifetime of this. It might lead to some pretty serious consequences like eating neurosis, constant bingeing on carbs and general deterioration of health not to mention the pure idea of living your whole life as a sacrifice to the slave of the fat-free.
Lierre Keith tells you why those fat free yogurts taste like crap in her compelling book, "The Vegetarian Myth". Before you get all defensive about the value of having desserts disguised as health foods in your diary aisle, consider the ideas presented in this book that are pretty valid even to the most middle of the road dairy enthusiast and deserve the critical thought Keith gives them.
First, the idea that civilization is a source of human happiness and contentment is a myth and you don't need to quote the statistics of sky high depression rates to believe it. Second, the idea that eating plants is better for you than eating animals and that plants don't want to be eaten any more than animals do and have some pretty nasty chemical tricks up their stems to ward off predators i.e. us. Third, the idea of symbiosis which has no expression in our industrial civilization at all. The idea that we evolved out of the need to consume the energy of the sun and since we can't photosynthesize, digest grass, but we can digest the animals who eat grass and thus the energy of the sun makes it to us.
These ideas are so important, so fundamental to life itself but yet so many modern civilized people have no idea abut them. So many people are removed from their food and are brainwashed to eat the differentiated products of the agriculture industry that many people have never tasted real food or don't even have the slightest idea of the cycle of big fish eating little fish.
Keith's at her best when she's explains the Cholesterol Myth and how the low fat diet was propagated in order serve the economics of an agriculture industry rather than telling people to eat what they want, which would be high fat delicious foods and actually enjoy their lives. Oh, Keith's chapters on this subject are fascinating, hard to put down and a well needed eye opener.
What it comes down to, is the old question of the Matrix-red-pill-or-the-blue-pill question that so many people would rather read the easy to digest food stories of Michael Pollan rather than really discuss the underlying issues that our food system represents. Those being agriculture leads to empires which leads to endless war for resources which leads to Peak oil, overpopulation, diseases of civilization and so much more.
Which is why I really highly recommend this book to everyone even those who are not vegetarian or interested in food issues. Keith goes where so many best selling authors can't go because they have to please a whole wide range of people to maintain their massive audiences.
My favorite part comes at the end when Keith goes so far as to envision, even if only for a few paragraphs, a world without agriculture or civilization for that matter and how we can go back to the wild, be fed indefinitely by bison and salmon. It may be idealistic, and Western concepts of property ownership and capitalist tendency would not survive. We'd have to teach our children the lessons of the circle of life, symbiosis instead of capitalism and exploitation. We'd have to do away with idea that he who owns the means of production has a right to exploit those who do not. We have to teach children the truth instead of the lies of Christopher Columbus so we can, as Keith puts, at least attain adult knowledge and act according and within the limits of our one and only finite planet.
Also, one last note, I know a lot of the reviewers of this book have and will go into great detail of their own dietary habits and what they eat or don't eat. I don't think that's as important as the question of what do you enjoy your life? Do you live a life of sacrifice to the Gods of Low Fat constantly worrying about early death or do you enjoy life and food? I know I enjoy my Greek yogurt with 14 grams of saturated fat. But don't take my word for it, try it for yourself and see what a difference it makes.
Lierre Speaks on Book in San Francisco June 15, 2009
Richard Katz (San Francisco, CA)
30 out of 41 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3GGB0CUPLSSL0 This video is an introduction to a talk that Lierre Keith gave on 6/14/09 at the Bound Together Book Store. She's very bright and has clearly thought this through. What I was really touched by was her humility and sensitivity to the vegan dilemma. I purchased the book and am half way through, it's a very engaging read.
A Can't-Put-It-Down, Mind Blowing, Pardigm Shifting Book! (for all -vores) October 20, 2009
Susan Schenck (San Diego, CA)
29 out of 40 found this review helpful
Though I am the author of a book that promotes raw vegetarianism, I couldn't put this book down! I found it fascinating and full of hard core indisputable research. I especially loved how she debunked the cholesterol myth, pointing to 167 studies indicating that dietary cholesterol has almost no effect on blood cholesterol, and also pointing out that cholesterol is needed for good health.
And wait until you read about how soy is causing Alzheimer's, early puberty, undescended testicles, and cancer.
The book's main chapters deal with the political (sustainable), moral and nutritional arguments around the vegetarian diet. The author tried so hard to not create any death in the production of her meal, and thus became a vegan. But when she tried to grow her own food, she found that the death of some creatures was inevitable...It is all part of the cycle of life. The book is also packed with info on the unsustainability of agriculture.
Most intriguing I found the "Nutritional Vegetarian" chapter. The author details in this book the tragic permanent effects on her health from 20 years of veganism and describes other health problems in others--citing strong evidence that the origins are dietary. After being a raw vegan myself for four years, I suffered some serious health problems. Once I incorporated raw eggs (from healthy chickens) and raw fish (marinated in lemon juice to kill parasites) or steamed fish into my diet, they went away. But I have faced head on the wrath of vegans, and know that Lierre speaks the truth when she calls veganism a cult. (Ever notice that vegans are more `vegangelical' or dogmatic than vegetarians? It's because many of them lack good saturated fats in their diet and this affects their brains, as the author explains.)
Nonetheless, I DO KNOW MANY LONG TERM RAW VEGANS WHO ARE VERY HEALTHY. These are mostly educated and know the importance of getting nutrients from superfoods, sea vegetables, and getting lots of sun for the Vitamin D. However--I did all that, and it didn't work.
I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Mercola (among others) is right: some of us are protein types (who really do need meat), some are carb types (successful vegetarians and perhaps even vegans) and some are mixed (needing about half of both). The author points to these biochemical differences among us when she (on p. 180) explains that "some of us can synthesize very-long-chain fatty acids from other EFAs (essential fatty acids), but some of us can't. These people don't produce the enzymes for the task. They're called `obligate carnivores'and they must get their elongated fatty acids from animal products."
This book is a must read for vegans, raw fooders, cooked fooders, vegetarians, carnivores and omnivores. It is not just about diet, but about ecology and how we are ruining the planet. This book is a real paradigm shifter, the highest compliment I can ever pay a book! You think `meat is murder'? Wait till you read this book, which proves that AGRICULTURE IS MURDER! It has caused the demise of thousands of species. It kills the mice and rabbits that get torn up by farm machines. It requires fertilizer filled with dead animals or limited petroleum. Ultimately, it is murdering us. Grains kill. They create disease. I detail this in an appendix of my own book. We need solutions, much broader ones than simply stopping the farm factories.
If You've Read 'The China Study' And Liked It, Then You Need To Read This Book! September 26, 2009
Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Man (Spartanburg, SC)
26 out of 37 found this review helpful
I've got to hand it to the organizations behind the marketing and promotion of the vegetarian diet. They've been phenomenally successful with their public relations efforts convincing most people that the optimal diet for health, respecting animals, and even saving the planet from destruction is a plant-based diet devoid of meat. And a good many vegans and vegetarians prance around scowling at people who don't eat like them wondering what's wrong with them and casting judgment on the choices they make about what foods they put in their mouths. Lierre Keith used to be one of them.
For the good part of two decades, Keith was a faithfully committed vegan and embraced the lifestyle as her own believing she was doing something positive for herself and the planet. Unfortunately, these lofty goals were based on misguided information and she believes vegetarianism is a mythical concept that is actually causing more harm than good. Ironically, the very planet she and other vegetarians have been trying to save from certain destruction by those dastardly meat-eaters is actually now in great peril because of the actions of those who seek to preserve it.
This book should be required reading for every vegan and vegetarian out there who so quickly embraces T. Colin Campbell's The China Study and hang on every word included in what has become the vegan/vegetarian manifesto. Keith completely acknowledges the four primary types of vegetarians (moral, political, nutritional, save the planet) and addresses in specific terms why they are inadequate reasons for remaining that way based on the facts. Too often vegetarianism plays on the emotions of those involved and they can't view the evidence facing them clearly.
Keith makes the case that a high-carb grain-based diet that is typical of most vegetarian diets is leading to significant health complications because of excessive insulin released into the body. LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are significantly elevated eating a diet like this and the deliberate addition of saturated fat in the diet from animal sources along with a reduction in carbohydrate is best for you. And the food manufacturers know this which is why they sell you cereal which costs less to make than the box it comes in! Cheap carbs lead to fat wallets for the food companies.
Notable low-carb diet and health experts are cited in the book, including Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, Gary Taubes, Dr. Loren Cordain, Sally Fallon, Dr. Mary Enig, Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades, Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, Anthony Colpo, Michael Pollan, Julia Ross, and Dr. Robert C. Atkins. Groups like THINCS, The Weston A. Price Foundation, Eat Wild, and others are also mentioned and acknowledged which will make Keith public enemy number one with her former vegetarian and vegan colleagues. She's certainly done her homework and the truth was so overwhelming to her that she had to reeducate herself about what was truly healthy and eco-responsible and that's a nutrient-dense meat-based diet.
The intensely descriptive language used by Keith in this book is inviting and convincing. Her ability to draw in the reader with both compassion and forthrightness is what makes it so compelling. You can tell she took great pains to communicate the message as clearly and non-threatening as possible so that just about anyone reading it could understand why the vegetarian myth exists. She does share some of the more bizarre beliefs that some vegans hold (like trying to do something about the killing of animals -- BY OTHER ANIMALS!), that really opened her eyes to what she had entangled herself in for far too long.
Taking the emotional component out of the vegetarian argument, Keith brilliantly cuts to the chase and tells the reader what the real deal is on this controversial subject. If you ever wanted to get inside the inner-most thoughts of a vegan to know why they think the way they do about their preferred lifestyle choice, then you need to get a copy of this book. Seeing the stark transformation from vegan to meat-eater is worth the price of admission!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 45
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