Eating

by Jim Mason and Peter Singer

Written with investigative vigour, provocative and controversial but always accessible, Eating is a hard-hitting exploration of our eating habits, making us look at what we eat as a moral issue.

Organic foods are the fastest growing section of the food industry, and it is estimated that vegans are now almost as common as vegetarians. Veal consumption in the US has fallen by more than 75% since 1975, and in the UK, sales of free-range eggs have now passed in value sales of eggs from caged hens. Evidently we are concerned. But how concerned should we be about where our food comes from? Does the food we buy really affect the world around us? And what can we do?

In Eating, philosopher Peter Singer and environmentalist Jim Mason follow three families with varying eating habits, from fast-food eaters to vegans, to explore how the food we eat makes its way to the table, and at what expense. The authors peel back each layer of food production, and examine how they ought to factor into our buying choices. Recognising that we are not all likely to become vegetarian or vegan, they go on to offer ways to make the most ethical choices within the framework of a diet that includes animal products.

• ISBN10: 0099504022
• ISBN13: 9780099504023
• Publish Date: 7 September 2006
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Imprint: Arrow Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

This book was working on getting me to think about changing my diet and shopping habits until it started to be a "Vegan is the only one true way" book. I suspect that it would be where it would loose a lot of other meat-eaters too.

It's an interesting book about the ethics of what you eat and the merits and demerits of each label. Some of the labels have been so diluted and abused that they have lost meaning. It did make my skin crawl when I read about the conditions that our meat is kept in before it dies.

I'm a country girl and I understood the relationship between the meat on my plate and the cute animals outside. The bit that truly lost me was "Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Meat Book includes hints on cooking pheasant, partridge, pigeon, mallard and teal ducks, geese, grouse, woodcock, snipe, rabbit, hare and venison, with a reference to cooking 'the odd squirrel' as well. It seems safe to say that many readers, including many who eat meat will be repulsed by this list." Nope. I've actually eaten a fair few on the list, and feel no shame about it either, a few of those that I haven't I have curiousity about too.

Yes a good read but ignore chapter 17 if you don't want to feel annoyed at preachiness. The rest is interesting aspirations but I'm not sure that I'm willing to go as far as others.