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Without getting too deep, I found the proposal that zillions of little animals get killed in harvesting "vegetarian" foods from wheat to soybeans very interesting and concerning. I have previously wondered what happens to the mice and voles and whatever else happens to be in the field when the thresher or whatever comes through. Mindless deaths like these (and squirrels run over by cars) actually bother me more than the intentional appreciative harvesting of an animal that has lived a good life and is going on to give life and continued growth to the animal that is eating it, whether that animal be human or another animal. The problem comes in when we eat meat like it is going out of fashion. I was a vegetarian for 12 years and then started to eat only free range meats about 7 years ago. Since that time I have begun to eat meat more and more and not just free range. Reading this book has brought me back to my senses and I am making a new effort to eat vegetarian when I don't know where the meat on the menu comes from and I am making sure that we eat more vegetarian meals at home. My husband is particularly fond of Quorn.

Oh, absolutely. I finished the book a week or so ago and wrote this in my blog:

"Unfortunately she has a very condescending-towards-vegans chapter making some very ridiculous assumptions about vegans (that they would like to rewrite animal domestication history, they would like to destroy the chains of bondage of GMO factory farm animals and let them live in the wild, that they are naive to the harm that goes into any food production) which I find both apropos since there are some self-righteous and naive vegans and quite silly since there are also very active environmentally-conscious vegans. But, I will assume she has only had contact with the former even though she uh, uses the internet."

I think there are both good and ridiculous points she makes about vegans. (For full disclosure I am one.) I know there are vegans stupid and self-righteous enough to think they harm nothing and I know there are tons of ecologically-minded vegans who both know that *all* food affects something whether it be displacement land, transport, etc. Her rant about how vegans essentially want to set farm animals free to roam the lands is both naive and ridiculous. I don't know any history revisionist vegans who are more concerned about how animals were domesticated by us more so than alleviating horrible inhumane processes that Kingsolver herself doesn't support. While most vegans wouldn't applaud her, I also think she is not really Vegan Public Enemy #1 like she seems to think she is.

I do think her argument about grains/land usage/feeding more people holds water in areas where grains cannot be harvested in great quantities -- but, again. That argument is usually used against both our food excesses and also an industry that pushes a ridiculous amount of meat production through GM animals and factory farming rather than areas assisted by Heifer Intl.

It was kind of surprising because I think it was the first time in the book where she was obviously really aggro about a particular people!

Hello: completely unrelated, but does anyone know where I can buy a print of this rooster and hen photo? Thanks

It was clear through her choice of words that Barbara has her own set opinion about vegetarianism and veganism - most people do. Still, everyone choices their own diet for a reason and it came off that she didn't even want to associate with people that choose that foodie lifestyle.

Personally, her info about farm animal breeds helped to enlightened me a bit more about how agricultural history and actually turned me off vegetarianism, but that's not to say that it is got a good eco-alternative to those that can't get organic or locally/humanly raised meat.

Of course, then you have to think about the impact growing meat has - it is a widely announced statistic that 18% of all greenhouse gases come from farming. While that is a shocker, I think the main part of the problem is not farming in and of itself but the way we are CURRENTLY farming. That figure would quickly go down if we went back to the "old ways" of smaller, co-op farms, like what Niman Ranch and Organic Valley are doing.

My sister-in-law recently finished the book and wrote her response to it (and this chapter, specifically) on her blog:

http://othershoeblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/animal-vegetable-manifesto.html