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Meatonomics: How the Rigged Economics of Meat and Dairy Make You Consume Too Much―and How to Eat Better, Live Longer, and Spend Smarter (Men Birthday Gift, for Readers of Comfortably Unaware) Paperback – September 1, 2013
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Stop Being Manipulated by the Animal Foods Industry
Stop the meat industry from eating into your wallet. Few Americans are aware of the realities of the economic system that supports our country's supply of animal foods. Yet these forces affect us in ways we can hardly imagine. Though we only fork over a few dollars per pound of meat products at the grocery store, we end up paying much more than that in tax dollar-fueled government subsidies—$38 billion more, to be exact. And that's just one layer of hidden costs. But with the help of sustainability advocate and author David Robinson Simon's Meatonomics, we can come up with informed, lasting solutions.
Improve your health, your life—and the world. Animal food producers influence our buying choices with artificially low prices, misleading messages, and heavy legislation and regulation control. But learning how these forces work can help you improve both your personal life and the world in so many important ways. Life-changing foods like those in a plant-based diet will do more than just improve your waistline. The information in Meatonomics can help you save money, lose weight, live longer, boost your health, protect animals and the planet from abuse, and preserve rural communities worldwide.
Learn to make better, more informed decisions on what to buy and how to eat. In Meatonomics, Dr. David Robinson Simon uses his excellent truth-finding skills, garnered from his expertise as a lawyer, to show you:
- How government marketing is influencing what we think of as healthy eating
- Just how much of our money is being burnt through by the meat production industry
- What we can do to change ourselves and our country for the better
If you were fascinated by sustainable food and healthy eating books like Proteinaholic, Eating Animals, or How Not to Die, you'll be empowered to overcome the meat industry's manipulation with Meatonomics.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherConari Press
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 2013
- Dimensions6 x 1 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101573246204
- ISBN-13978-1573246200
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About the Author
David Robinson Simon is a lawyer and advocate for sustainable consumption. He works as general counsel for a healthcare company and serves on the board of the APRL Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting animals.
David received his B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and his J.D. from the University of Southern California. He is also the author of New Millennium Law Dictionary, a full English legal dictionary. He lives in Southern California with his partner, artist Tania Marie, and their rabbit, tortoise, and two cats.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
MEATONOMICS
How the Rigged Economics of Meat and Dairy Make You Consume Too Much-and How to Eat Better, Live Longer, and Spend Smarter
By David Robinson SimonRed Wheel/Weiser, LLC
Copyright © 2013 David Robinson SimonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-57324-620-0
Contents
Author's Note,Introduction,
Part I: Influencing the Consumer,
1. The Brave New World of Government Marketing,
2. Massaging the Message: Shaping Consumer Beliefs,
3. Sausage Making and Lawmaking: Influence in the Political Process,
4. Regulatory Conflict and Consumer Confusion,
Part II: The Hidden Costs of Meatonomics,
5. Feeding at the Subsidy Trough,
6. Diseases and Doctor Bills,
7. The Sustainability Challenge,
8. The Costs of Cruelty,
9. Fishing Follies,
10. Recipes for Change,
Acknowledgments,
Appendix A: Animal Foods and Human Health,
Appendix B: Summary of the Annual Externalized Costs of US Animal Food,
Production (in billions),
Appendix C: Economic Effects of Proposed Meat Tax and Support Changes,
Appendix D: Factory Farming Practices,
Endnotes,
Index,
CHAPTER 1
The Brave New World of Government Marketing
In his 1932 novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley imagined a future in whichhumans exist solely to support the economy and are conditioned from birth to buythings. Government bureaucrats manipulate the sheep-like citizens with drugs andslogans to make them consume as much as possible. In Huxley's vision, 26th-centuryconsumers learn that "ending is better than mending" and "the morestitches, the less riches"—that is, buying new things is better than fixing oldones. But for US consumers, this eerie futuristic fantasy—with government usingmarketing slogans and other undue influence to drive consumption—has arrived afew centuries early. This chapter explores government marketing as a feature ofmeatonomics and considers its consequences for consumers.
Checkoff Programs: Unseen and Unknown, But Felt Everywhere
In the Brave New World of the 21st century—where big box stores and mega marketsdominate the landscape—our government uses innocuous-sounding "checkoff"programs to encourage us to buy more animal foods and other goods. Themechanism's name persists from a time when the assessments were voluntary andproducers willing to opt in participated by simply checking a box. Nowadays, theprograms are tax-like and mandatory, even though the benign checkoff monikerremains.
The way they work is simple: Congress slaps a small assessment (less than 1percent of wholesale price) on certain commodities, and the collected funds areused to pay for research and marketing programs that boost the goods' sales. Sowhen animal food producers collect $1 per head of cattle, $0.40 per $100 ofpork, or $0.15 per 100 pounds of dairy, they pass those funds on to nationalmarketing organizations. The proceeds are allocated among state and regionalindustry organizations throughout the country. There aren't many Boston TeaParty–like protests when it comes to making the payments—probably because mostconsumers don't know about checkoffs and most producers think their trade groupsput the money to good use. These trade groups don't equivocate much about whatthey do or why they exist. The Kentucky Cattlemen's Association, for example,keeps it simple, saying its business purpose is "Promotion of the beefindustry."
Although few Americans have heard of checkoff programs, we've all heard or seenthe catchy, feel-good slogans they've generated:
Beef. It's What's for Dinner.
Milk. It Does a Body Good.
Pork. The Other White Meat.
Written, spoken, or sung—and flashed across every medium, including print,radio, TV, and the Internet—these statements have bombarded American consumersfor decades. The echo of one particularly snappy jingle that went with aubiquitous 1990s commercial—"The Incredible, Edible Egg"—still rattles in mybrain. And while that phrase and many others predate social networking, theypersist because their sticky messaging fits in perfectly with today's meme-saturated,web-dominated world. Like an ink stamp, these messages imprintthemselves with authority on our subconscious and become part of our beliefsystem. What's for dinner? Without even knowing why, many think, Beef.
Across the board, animal food checkoff programs are remarkably effective atmaking us buy more than we would otherwise. According to the USDA, for eachdollar of checkoff funds spent promoting animal foods, "the return on investmentcan range as high as $18." The beef checkoff program raises sales by $5 percheckoff dollar spent. The pork checkoff program drives $14 in sales per dollarspent. While it may not boast a memorable motto, the lamb checkoff provides anunusually huge boost, driving additional sales of $38, or seven extra pounds oflamb, for each dollar spent on promotion. But the biggest winner might be thedairy industry, which recently boasted that over a year and a half, checkoffefforts contributed to more than 7 billion additional pounds of milk sold.That's an extra forty-seven servings of dairy per person in the United States—aboveand beyond the hundreds of servings we would have consumed anyway duringthe period. Clearly, milk is up to more than just doing a body good.
All told, these programs provide funding of $557 million yearly for animal foodproducers to promote their goods. This massive, government-mandated marketingbudget gives the meatonomic system something few other microeconomic systemshave: an exceedingly deep marketing war chest, deployed to boost sales of allgoods from all producers in the program. A few other commodities, like cottonand soybeans, have checkoff programs of their own. Yet in every other industry,except for those lucky enough to have a checkoff program, individualcorporations must fork out their own funds to increase sales rather than rely ongovernment programs to prop up their numbers. With meatonomics, on the otherhand, the effect of checkoff programs is that we all buy more of nearly everyconceivable animal food than we would otherwise. Like a diner with an insatiableappetite, the animal food industry relishes the higher sales that result. Dairypromoters brag that since their checkoff program started in 1983, annual percapita consumption of milk "has climbed 12 percent to 620 pounds."
Some say checkoff programs have been unfairly linked to government and areactually just the tools of good old-fashioned capitalism. They argue thesecheckoff arrangements involve only private firms who pool advertising monieswithout government participation, and their mission and methods are no differentfrom those of any private advertiser. However, the US Supreme Court decisivelyrejected this position in a 2005 case involving the beef checkoff. In Johanns v.Livestock Marketing Association, beef industry participants who disagreed withthe message of the latest beef campaign claimed that being forced to fund itviolated their right of free speech. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding themessage was actually government speech (a form of speech the government can makeothers support). The court said:
The message set out in the beef promotions is from beginning to end the messageestablished by the Federal Government.... Congress and the Secretary [of theUSDA] have set out the overarching message and some of its elements, and theyhave left the development of the remaining details to an entity whose membersare answerable to the Secretary (and in some cases appointed by him as well).
Moreover, the record demonstrates that the Secretary exercises final approvalauthority over every word used in every promotional campaign. All proposedpromotional messages are reviewed by [USDA] Department officials both forsubstance and for wording, and some proposals are rejected or rewritten by theDepartment.... Nor is the Secretary's role limited to final approval orrejection: Officials of the Department also attend and participate in the openmeetings at which proposals are developed.
This crystal-clear language from the highest court in the land leaves littledoubt that the beef checkoff program, and the messages it generates, are theproduct of the federal government. Simple logic shows that other animal foodcheckoff programs, which were established by Congress in the same way and aresimilarly administered by the USDA, are equally the mouthpieces of the federalgovernment. So when one of these organizations speaks—regardless of the productit's hawking—it may say it's the National Pork Board, but the background soundsyou're hearing are the imposing bass tones of the US government.
In fact, the government's continued regulatory involvement is a necessarycomponent for mandatory checkoffs to remain legally and operationally viable. IfCongress simply created a checkoff program and then stepped aside to letindustry run it, the First Amendment's free speech protections would likelyprevent the industry majority from bullying dissenters into participating in itsmessage. Under those circumstances, forget the government speech exception: itwouldn't apply and individual participants could opt out. The result would be acheckoff program that is in fact optional, not mandatory.
Why does that matter? Because such a scenario would likely undercut the force ofthe messaging. As research on optional checkoffs shows, economic free riders—thosegroup members who opt out of paying for all the snazzy commercials butstill enjoy their benefits—significantly lower the effectiveness of suchprograms. Ultimately, a lack of government involvement would likely lead tothe decline—or maybe the end—of checkoffs.
Checking Out Checkoffs
Few people have heard of checkoffs, and fewer still have considered theireffects. Yet these programs have a number of important consequences, some goodand some bad, that merit attention. First and foremost, checkoffs stimulate theeconomy. By boosting sales, checkoffs create jobs and drive spending. As theUSDA puts it, "The fundamental goal of every checkoff program is to increasecommodity demand, which increases the potential long-term economic growth of allsectors of the industry and the communities in which they operate."
With a few calculations, we can estimate the overall economic effect ofcheckoffs. It's a full-fledged bonanza: As table 1.1 shows, the USDA's figuresfor return on investment from checkoff funds suggest that checkoffs boost salesof animal foods by about $4.6 billion. There's also a multiplier effectrelated to this sales increase: checkoffs create new jobs, and that in turnincreases spending. Applying the typical multiplier used by researchers (0.77)to the sales total yields $8.2 billion in total economic stimulus related toanimal food checkoffs. Not bad, but what about the other side of the ledger?
For starters, animal food production generates large external costs—expensesthat producers impose on society instead of paying themselves. In the book'ssecond half, we'll see that for each $1 of animal food sold at retail, theindustry generates about $1.70 in external costs. Applying this ratio to the$4.6 billion sales figure reveals that checkoffs generate roughly $7.8 billionin external costs not reflected in the retail prices of the goods they promote.That's nearly equal to the economic activity they generate. As with many of theinteresting equations that meatonomics presents, the $64,000 question is whetherthe trade-off is worth it.
Checkoffs, moreover, cause us to buy more animal foods than we would otherwise.Yet judging from the data, Americans already eat plenty of these foods and don'tneed more. Teenagers, for example, consume 78 percent more saturated fat and 48percent more cholesterol—both linked primarily or exclusively to animal foods—thangovernment guidelines recommend. One in three US teenagers is obese oroverweight, triple the rate in 1963, and a growing number have diabetes or highblood pressure—diseases directly linked to meat and dairy consumption andformerly seen only rarely before adulthood.
Nevertheless, the USDA keeps urging these kids to eat more of the very foodsthat help make them fat and unhealthy. The huge milk promotion Fuel Up to Play60, for instance, enjoys more than $50 million yearly in government-mandatedfunding and reaches 36 million students in seventy thousand schools. Andcheckoff funding helped the Dairy Board team with Domino's Pizza to offer pizzasin two thousand US schools. Yet it's not just kids who overindulge; as table2.1 in chapter 2 shows, adult Americans also routinely consume more animal foodsthan the USDA recommends.
Weird Science
With annual promotional funds of $389 million, the dairy industry enjoys nearlythree times the checkoff spending of all fruit and vegetable producers combined(not to mention a marketing budget that would be the envy of many a Hollywoodstudio). To look at it another way, dairy spends more on advertising in oneweek than the blueberry, mango, watermelon, and mushroom industries spendtogether in a year. Under federal law, checkoff funds are intended to be usedfor both promotion and research. Thus, the National Dairy Council, the largestof dairy's many checkoff-funded arms, boasts that it "partners with topuniversities and other research facilities across the United States to supportnutrition research efforts." Dairy research, funded by at least $58 millionyearly, is largely focused on finding ways to convince consumers that dairy ishealthy.
Since industry-funded research might be suspect, dairy takes steps to ensure itsresearch appears unbiased. For scientific credibility, research must bepublished in a respected, peer-reviewed journal. But here's the rub: theNational Dairy Council ensures access to such journals, and the benevolence oftheir editorial boards, by donating cash to a number of nutritionalorganizations. These include the American Society for Nutrition (whose othercorporate sponsors include Dannon and McDonald's) and the Academy of Nutritionand Dietetics (brought to you by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association).Both organizations publish prestigious research journals.
The "best source for the most accurate, credible and timely food and nutritioninformation," boasts the website of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Butwhat's left unsaid is the Academy, formerly known as the American DieteticAssociation (ADA), has a particularly cozy relationship with dairy. As theworld's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, with overseventy thousand members, it's easy to see how food industry players can benefitfrom access to this influential group. This begs the question, just how accurateand credible is the organization's nutrition advice?
In a 2007 press release discussing a major increase in the size of the NationalDairy Council's funding commitment, the ADA said the sponsorship arrangementgave dairy producers "prominent access to key influencers, thought leaders anddecision-makers in the food and nutrition marketplace." The release went on toillustrate, with candor, how the relationship benefits the Dairy Council. Onequid pro quo of past sponsorship apparently included the ADA's endorsement ofthe Dairy Council's "3-A-Day of Dairy" campaign, which educates consumers andhealth professionals about the nutrition and health benefits of consuming threeservings of fat-free or low-fat milk, cheese and yogurt a day." The ADArelease didn't disclose the extent of the Dairy Council's generosity, butjudging from the size of other contributions from animal food producers tononprofits, it's safe to assume it wasn't insignificant. The National Livestockand Meat Board, for example, gave $189,000 in one year to the American HeartAssociation.
Dairy also seeks to extend its scientific influence by installing its people onboards, committees, and editorial panels of nutritional organizations and theirjournals. One of these people is Gregory Miller, who serves in multiplecapacities—president of the Dairy Research Institute, executive vice presidentof the Dairy Council, and committee chair for the American Society forNutrition.
Miller and I spoke about dairy research. Among other things, I was curious aboutstudies that have looked at industry influence in the scientific process. Thesestudies find that industry-funded research is up to four times more likely toreach conclusions favorable to the sponsor than unfavorable. In one of thesestudies, researchers found that "systematic bias favors products which are madeby the company funding the research."
According to Miller, the dairy industry provides a sort of public servicethrough its support of nutrition research. "With government funding continuingto shrink," Miller told me, "industry has a responsibility to help fund some ofthe research that needs to be done out there." In light of such apparentlyselfless motives, who could accuse the dairy industry of bias? Furthermore,Miller assured me dairy research is not biased, twice using the Fox News slogan"fair and balanced" to drive home the point.
But what about the study that found industry-supported research is four timesmore likely to reach conclusions favorable to its sponsor? "That study design issomewhat flawed," Miller told me. "I would take it with a grain of salt."
Miller sent me a number of published articles from industry-funded research.These studies have titles like "Dairy Calcium Intake, Serum Vitamin D, andSuccessful Weight Loss" and, even catchier, "Drinking Flavored or Plain Milk isPositively Associated with Nutrient Intake and Is Not Associated with AdverseEffects on Weight Status in US Children and Adolescents." For anyone interestedin just how fair and balanced this research is, a look at one study isenlightening.
In 2010, researcher Patty Siri-Tarino of the Children's Hospital OaklandResearch Institute and three colleagues published an article that foundconsumption of saturated fat does not cause heart disease. This article'ssurprising conclusion runs contrary to a significant and consistent line ofpublished research that finds exactly the opposite—that dietary saturated fatcauses heart disease. Not surprisingly, the news that eating fat doesn't leadto heart disease hit the blogs like celebrity wedding gossip. The animal foodindustry now trumpets the Siri-Tarino study as one of several said to debunk the"myth" that saturated fat is unhealthy.
(Continues...)Excerpted from MEATONOMICS by David Robinson Simon. Copyright © 2013 David Robinson Simon. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : Conari Press; Illustrated edition (September 1, 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1573246204
- ISBN-13 : 978-1573246200
- Item Weight : 15.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,242,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,627 in Environmental Science (Books)
- #3,019 in Environmentalism
- #4,011 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David Robinson Simon is a lawyer and advocate for sustainable consumption. He works as general counsel for a healthcare company and serves on the board of the APRL Fund, a non-profit dedicated to protecting animals. David received his B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and his J.D. from the University of Southern California. He is also the author of New Millennium Law Dictionary, a full-length legal dictionary. He lives in Southern California with his partner, artist Tania Marie, and their rabbit, tortoise, and two cats.
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Customers find the book insightful and informative. They consider it a valuable resource and an important read on today's meat production. The book is described as highly readable, well-organized, and easy to digest. It inspires customers to reduce their meat consumption, which can have positive effects on their health and food expenditure.
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Customers find the book informative and eye-opening. They say it's well-researched, with plenty of facts and well-reasoned arguments. The book provides useful information in an enjoyable and easy-to-read format.
"...Simon, a lawyer, is incredibly thorough in his findings and provides a bevy of sources that would make an encyclopedia blush...." Read more
"...This book is highly readable, elucidating and well-documented. It is also a disturbing and infuriating read. Don't miss it." Read more
"...The author is a lawyer who gives succinct but well-reasoned and well-backed arguments for abandoning meat--and the many government interventions..." Read more
"This book was eye-catching. I recommend it to every human being on the planet. I was 95% plant based before this book and now I am 100%...." Read more
Customers find the book readable, well-documented, and easy to digest. They describe it as an eye-opening must-read.
"...It no doubt took a great effort to write, and I will be sharing it with everyone I know since it serves as the succinct catalog of information that..." Read more
"...This book is highly readable, elucidating and well-documented. It is also a disturbing and infuriating read. Don't miss it." Read more
"...calls written by Greta, '"telling it like it is," this is a book we need to read slowly, like a new standard edition of the bible...." Read more
"...Brilliantly written, researched and organized...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and worthwhile. They say it provides an important perspective on today's meat and dairy production, with a clear understanding of the issues and how money is spent in America. The economic arguments provide a strong push to consider ending meat consumption. Readers appreciate the easy-to-read format and the attempt to aggregate the external costs of meat.
"...that tries to jam consumerism down your throat; this book is well worth your time. I only wish I had come across something like this years ago." Read more
"...All of those are still in Simon's book, but his economic arguments add an extra punch that should even raise the eyebrows of people who aren't the..." Read more
"...ago, and based on my further reading so far up to page134 in another great book, Meatonomics (2013) by David R. Simon, that Greta could have gone..." Read more
"This book is amazing, eyeopening, disheartening and, sigh, so true that it is overwhelming. How does this system get changed?..." Read more
Customers find the book inspiring them to cut back on meat consumption. They say it helps them save money and improve health. The arguments for not eating meat are well-supported, and the book is an eye-opener on diet and the meat industry.
"...have certainly reaped some immediate benefits, including lowering my food expenditure and improving my health...." Read more
"...is a lawyer who gives succinct but well-reasoned and well-backed arguments for abandoning meat--and the many government interventions that deflate..." Read more
"...my carnivorous ways anytime soon, but it’s inspired me to drastically cut back on my meat consumption...." Read more
"Dave Simon's new book is a real eye opener on diet and personal and planetary health...." Read more
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2014I want to start by saying that I was an omnivore for most of my life. I was born and raised in the US Heartland. (Iowa, to be specific.) For a long time I thought the issue of eating meat was simply an issue of ethics and morals. Consequently, I had no problem consuming meat and dairy because, in principle, it seemed entirely ethical. And I thought, incorrectly, that the industrialized reality of the industry was much, much smaller than the 99 percent it actually is. I personally know small families that have their own cows, chickens, and hogs. It can't be that bad, can it?
Man, I have never been so wrong and had my moral core so shattered than when I stumbled upon the truth.
"Stumbled" is the perfect word in this instance. Like a growing number of people lately, I've been trying to keep myself informed on whatever I can. This has been a burgeoning effort on my part in recent years because, like many Americans, I find myself becoming more and more disillusioned with my government's ability to actually govern effectively. Then, in a surprising turn some several months back, I found myself falling over article after article and study after study about the catastrophically terrible model of the meat and dairy industries. It seems this is true the world over, but the US is on an entirely other level of corrupt, so bad that it must be put in a category all its own.
After a couple of months of finding nothing but heart-wrenching data about how bad this industry is, I decided that I would no longer participate, at least on the retail side. (Unfortunately, my tax dollars still go to this government-sponsored disaster.) I no longer consume meat or dairy, and while I don't aggressively encourage others to do so, I have tried to inform those who ask (people who have known me all my life and would thus notice such a drastic change) and have certainly reaped some immediate benefits, including lowering my food expenditure and improving my health.
The reason I mention any of this is because Meatonomics serves as a very handy, one-stop shop when it comes to this issue. Simon, a lawyer, is incredibly thorough in his findings and provides a bevy of sources that would make an encyclopedia blush. It was exactly the thing I was looking for to bring everything together. It no doubt took a great effort to write, and I will be sharing it with everyone I know since it serves as the succinct catalog of information that I had been looking for.
The good news is that, as stark as the situation is currently, we CAN change it, and Simon does a good job outlining alternatives and what you can do. This is a book that every American should have to read. Don't be afraid of your ignorance, and don't be afraid of Big Business that tries to jam consumerism down your throat; this book is well worth your time. I only wish I had come across something like this years ago.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2013The meat, dairy and egg industries do not want you to read this book. Nor does the government. And the reason is clear: Many of the carefully documented revelations in Meatonomics are truly shocking. We have been badly betrayed by many of those we elected to represent our interests. For example, while the government recommends we eat less saturated fat and cholesterol, it subsidizes mightily the very products which contain them. Not only does it subsidize the meat (including fish), dairy and egg industries, it actively promotes these cruelly produced and harmful products.
In his book, David Simon details the corporate influence of the meat, dairy and egg industries on public policy. Truly, we have "the best democracy money can buy."
The books and websites of vegan physicians such as John Mcdougall, have educated us about the horrendous damage to our health caused by animal products. From PETA, Mercy for Animals and other organizations, we have learned about the horrible suffering inflicted on farm animals. Authors John Robbins and Richard Oppenlander have made clear the massive environmental and climate damage resulting from animal product consumption. And author Will Tuttle made us aware of the spiritual damage caused by our tragic and disrespectful relationship to the billions of animals slaughtered yearly to be eaten.
It was not until I read Meatonomics that I truly understood the economic consequences of our meat-centric diet. This book is highly readable, elucidating and well-documented. It is also a disturbing and infuriating read. Don't miss it.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2014There have been plenty of books and documentaries lately promoting a plant-based diet, so I almost didn't bother with this one. But the Kindle price was right, and I wanted to try out the Kindle app for my iPhone. I wasn't expecting much that I hadn't already read or heard, but this book surprised me. The author is a lawyer who gives succinct but well-reasoned and well-backed arguments for abandoning meat--and the many government interventions that deflate its prices--and going veggie. The economic angle is one that tends to be neglected in similar books and documentaries, overshadowed by animal-rights, health, and environmental angles. All of those are still in Simon's book, but his economic arguments add an extra punch that should even raise the eyebrows of people who aren't the typical target audience. This is worth picking up!
Top reviews from other countries
- KatieReviewed in Canada on August 3, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
I wish stuff like this was more widely available to the public. This is an important read and unfortunately not enough people are going to read this.
- ChickpeaReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous informative book
Worth every single penny. I got a supposedly 'used' book but it looks brand new. Very informative and well written.
- ColleenReviewed in Australia on February 11, 2018
4.0 out of 5 stars eye opening
eye opening, and about time somebody said it - we eat way too much meat!
- Sarah SzeszorakReviewed in Canada on August 17, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking info everyone needs! A must read!
Everyone needs to read this book to understand the full impact of continuing to consume animal products.
- axiReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for people who want to wake up and stop ...
Full of interesting info. Perfect for people who want to wake up and stop pretending killing animals is ok