Today’s Washington Post has a roundup of the latest conscientious carnivore books, a genre of literature pioneered by Michael Pollan, but whose work is absent from this article.
Each book has its own tack and tone, but the essential message is the same: Carnivores should not feel guilty. Nor should they cede the moral high ground to vegetarians and vegans, whose answer to the complex questions raised by eating animals is to abstain entirely. Instead, the authors argue, carnivores should celebrate their decision to eat meat by being conscientious about what they choose.
This doesn’t exactly make me break out in wild applause. But my guess is these folks eat less meat than most people, and avoid factory farmed stuff entirely. For instance, Catherine Friend, one author in this roundup:
advocates eating less meat and making sure it’s humanely raised. And if you can’t avoid factory-farmed meat, she says, go meatless.
But I wish the authors had it in them to refrain from making silly points. For instance, after five weeks on a veggie diet, one author claimed to be: “pale as sticky rice, as weak as Scotch broth.”
What on earth was she eating? I know some people don’t seem to thrive after significant time on a veggie diet, but a description like that after just five weeks? Amazing.
And get a load of this truly insane comment by Friend:
People who become complete vegetarians for the sake of animals are basically getting up from the table and leaving the room. Although they might work to help better animals’ lives through their words, those words won’t keep a sustainable farmer in business.
Tell that to the organic farmers at my farmer’s market, from whom I purchase my veggies each week — are they not sustainable farmers? Seriously, it’s hard to think anything Friend could write would be worth reading after seeing an idiotic claim like the above. Link. (Thanks, Mee Yong!)
