The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer, Jim Mason Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
Book Review: Indepth & Well Thought Out
Summary: 4 Stars
This book gives a complete overall view of the industry behind our food choices and makes a very convincing argument based on well documented and referenced facts why our choices matter ethically.Book Review: Interesting on both a philosophical & a practical level
Summary: 4 Stars
Philosophy has rarely considered the ethics of what we eat, because until very recently, we largely ate food grown on family farms and two generations ago most people were still pretty well acquainted with where their food came from. (Most grandparents or at least great grandparents have churned butter, pluicked a chicken, etc.) In today's world everything is pre-packaged and because we no longer have to think about it, we don't. The truth is we probably don't like or want to think about how the food gets to the supermarket. After all, it's tough enough to try and plan and shop for meals and then throw together something after a long day at the office. Add in trying to think about health concerns, trying to manage on a budget and hey, we have enough to worry about, right?
But it bothered me that I knew full well that if I had to kill my own food I would be a vegetarian...yet I love meat and just didn't want to give it up. So the last few years I bought organic and grass fed and cage free...and yet, I wondered, given all the articles about the meaninglessness of labels and the lack of real standards, am I paying more just to feel like maybe the animals are treated better, when in fact there is no difference? How bad have things gotten? Basically, bad enough that I feel I have to invest energy in changing my habits, or ok enough I can continue trying to focus on organics and grass fed/cage free meat and dairy, and that's enough for me?
I was hoping this book would help me answer that question. The truth is, I didn't look forward to reading it - I didn't want something preaching or someone trying throughout to get me to go vegan (great goal, don't know that I'm up for the task though). I am pleased to report that I didn't find it preachy and actually, it was quite an interesting read. There are some things I wish were covered that aren't, but I think the approach of selecting three families and looking at what they buy, then going behind the scenes and discussing the impacts of their choices, was well done.
If you enjoy philosophy and have any leanings, as I did, to consider more carefully the issue of today's diet and what you eat, I recommend this book. It can be hard to read in places. You don't want to believe how bad conditions really are in some factory animal farming - you kind of don't want to know - bit that doesn't mean you shouldn't know.
Ignorance is bliss. Reading this is not. But I would rather make informed choices and know the truth than continue to not think about the choices I make in the supermarket. If you decide to make changes, it's not that hard, as this book let's you know what to look for and questions to ask. For example, I was aware that beef needs to be not only grass fed, but ideally grass finished, but I never asked my organic beef grower about slaughter procedures used. And, I didn't know that when considering eggs I should look into not only free range free, but at are the chickens debeaked? I have a lot more information that I can use as a consumer to make smart choices after reading this book, both about vegetable and meat products. I have not had a problem going to local growers or producers and getting my questions answered, and if you want to be informed this book will help you make choices in your everyday food selections that benefit the environment and prevent creulty to animals. How far you go with it is entirely your choice. Topics covered include environmental impacts, third world country economics, worker conditions, fair trade, and animal living conditions as well as animal creulty.
It would be great if this topic were introduced in modern college ethics courses and if we all had time to learn about why our food choices do matter. This book offers something others don't along those lines and if you are an analytical or thoughtful person, or just want to know more about how what you buy in your weekly shopping trip affects the planet and the animals on it, it's worth your time.
Book Review: A lot of reading for 10 pages of information.
Summary: 2 Stars
After numerous recommendations & reviews, I purchased this book hoping for an open-minded discussion of the ethics of food. What I got was almost 300 pages of preaching about just how profit driven and callous the food industry is.
Basically, if it has a face, you shouldn't eat it; if it isn't truly organic, you shouldn't eat it; if you buy from your local farmers market, you shouldn't eat it because it's hurting farmers in 3rd world countries. I've heard these discussions before and a lot of what the authors write is a combination of common sense, an abundance of trying to beat a dead horse, with a touch of the offbeat (the positive ethics of dumpster diving for your food was a little out there).
What really bothered me though is that 290-some pages were wasted when the 10 page summation at the end of the book stated the authors' case pretty well. How many trees were cut down in the publishing of these extra pages?
That said, the book is extremely well writen and the authors' research well done. At the end of the day though, this is a restatement of what has been written about many times before (the length of the bibliography proves it too).
Your best bet is to go to your library and read the last chapter. You'll save a lot of time. When you are finished with the synopsis and want more details, only then read the whole thing.
Book Review: If more people read this book...
Summary: 5 Stars
The world would be a better place. It is not a lenghty polemic on why you should convert to vegetarianism (or veganism), but a book that takes an unflinching look at where most food in America comes from. It doesn't wheedle or try to tell the reader that he/she should make different choices regarding the foods that he/she purchases and consumes. It just presents the facts and lets the reader decide for him/herself. After enlightening myself and making small changes to the way I eat I know that I am making a tiny difference in the world because others observe my behavior and ask why I do it and when I give a simple explination that I can't make uninformed food choices (for instance, not eating meat in a restaurant, because it is almost invariably supplied by mainstream, factory-farmed animals and I can't stomach the thought of eating an animal that lived an unhappy life)maybe my behavior and informed choices will influence others to change their behaviors, or at least read the book)Book Review: A full-course meal
Summary: 5 Stars
Few facets of human existence affect our health and the environment as much as what we eat, and surely none has a greater impact on animals. Thus, the time seems perpetually ripe for good books on human food choices. The authors of this one, both vegetarians and probably vegans, succeed in presenting a well-reasoned and reader-friendly discussion of their subject.
The book is built around the food habits of three American families, one who subscribe to the traditional "meat and potatoes" diet, another who are conscientious semi-vegetarians, and the third who are vegans. Each serves as a base from which to examine food production and its consequences. We travel from factory farms to farmers' markets, from kitchens to ocean trawlers to dumpsters. We hear from people who work in all of these environments. And the authors provide analyses without sermonizing.
Several trends emerge. Large meat corporations talk of educating the public about modern meat production, but fail to return phone calls and flatly deny access to their meat processing facilities. We learn of "the law of gravity of big business"--with big corporations buying up organic brands then cutting corners to maximize profits. We meet farmers who move their animals from intensive indoor confinement to outdoor pasture situations. One such, a pig farmer, describes how many hassles he now avoids by letting his pigs run outside on pasture: no more tail-amputation, no antibiotics, no special weaning feed (his piglets wean naturally at 8 weeks instead of artificially at 2 weeks), and "scouring" (diarrhea) is replaced by "pasture poop" that doesn't stink (I can attest to this, as a regular visitor to a sanctuary with free-roaming pigs). And far from being an economic liability, the ensuing demand for his product has outgrown his supply.
For those who eat fish, there is news to prick the conscience--an excellent summation of recent findings demonstrating pain and cognition in fishes. To that end, I was surprised the authors chose not to include fish flesh as a form of "meat." For those who eat eggs, we learn of deluxe free-range eggs (sold at five times that of conventional battery eggs) being shipped from New Zealand to California with such efficiency that--owing to time zones--an American may be eating an omelet before the hen laid the egg. Little wonder, then, that the ingredients in some dinners have been shipped further than the distance around the Earth's circumference (24,000 miles).
That said, here's to "freegans" who remove themselves from the troubled food supply chain by living entirely off discarded food mined from supermarket dumpsters.
Wherever you are in that chain, you should read this book, and take stock of your food choices.