The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith
The Vegetarian Myth Book Review
The Vegetarian Myth is unusual in that the author Lierre Keith, an active campaigner for women’s rights and the environment, was a vegan for twenty years before reintroducing meat into her diet. She is one of only a few authors who have first-hand experience with a prolonged strict vegan diet and can accurately tell the reader of the pros and cons of living without animal proteins and fats in her diet. This is something that no hunter-gather tribe in the human archives has been found to do.
The book tells of Keith’s journey, from her health and ethical challenges in transitioning from vegan to omnivore. She also does an admirable job of explaining the environmental impact of plant-based diets on soil erosion, water consumption and contamination, and the destruction of animals and their habitat, as well as proposing possible solutions that are within our grasp if we can overcome the political and economic bias that’s leading us down a slippery slope that if not addressed soon, we may not be able to recover from.
I took many things away from this book; particularly memorable highlights are her personal journey, environmental issues and how soy is processed! I don’t eat soy as I already understood how it’s a hormone mimicker. Still, now that I understand the processing of soy outside of its traditional fermented form, I’m not consuming it!
My only criticism of the book, and one that it was easy to overcome, was that its narration in audio form was very slow, it allows think about its content as you go, but for me, it was too slow. However, I tapped the x1.25 speed option in Audible and hey presto, I was off and happily enjoying the content and thought-provoking message.
Publishers Book Summary
We’ve been told that a vegetarian diet can feed the hungry, honour the animals, and save the planet. Lierre Keith believed in that plant-based diet and spent twenty years as a vegan. But in The Vegetarian Myth, she argues that we’ve been led astray – not by our longings for a just and sustainable world, but by our ignorance.
The truth is that agriculture is a relentless assault against the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. In service to annual grains, humans have devastated prairies and forests, driven countless species extinct, altered the climate, and destroyed the topsoil – the basis of life itself. Keith argues that if we are to save this planet, our food must be an act of profound and abiding repair: it must come from inside living communities, not be imposed across them. Part memoir, part nutritional primer, and part political manifesto, The Vegetarian Myth will challenge everything you thought you knew about food politics.
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