Comments on: The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 3) http://goodmaneats.com/2009/11/02/the-grass-fed-manifesto-part-3/ A Portland food blog Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:19:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: jean http://goodmaneats.com/2009/11/02/the-grass-fed-manifesto-part-3/comment-page-1/#comment-241 jean Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:25:41 +0000 http://goodmaneats.com/?p=571#comment-241 Some other good reading in this connection is Lierre Keith, "The Vegetarian Myth." She goes a long ways towards debunking a lot of the mythology equating vegetarianism with ecological and humanitarian purity. The ideology equating all consumption of meat with animal cruelty and ecological ruin has gained huge traction, particularly among contemporary (typically college educated) urbanites. Unfortunately, though, it paints a much too simplistic picture of the real dilemmas and problems that face us vis a vis both animal welfare and personal and ecological health. The facts that you point out about the industrial agricultural system -- the costs of global monocultures, of petroleum dependence, pollution, and the costs of large distance transport of food commodities, are an important part of that story. An equally important issue, in my opinion, is the impact on health of large industrial middlemen tampering with our food, whether in the form of dangerous adulteration like trans fats, or the promiscuous use of industrial sweeteners a la hfcs, or bizarre pseudofoods like "olestra". Some other good reading in this connection is Lierre Keith, “The Vegetarian Myth.” She goes a long ways towards debunking a lot of the mythology equating vegetarianism with ecological and humanitarian purity. The ideology equating all consumption of meat with animal cruelty and ecological ruin has gained huge traction, particularly among contemporary (typically college educated) urbanites. Unfortunately, though, it paints a much too simplistic picture of the real dilemmas and problems that face us vis a vis both animal welfare and personal and ecological health. The facts that you point out about the industrial agricultural system — the costs of global monocultures, of petroleum dependence, pollution, and the costs of large distance transport of food commodities, are an important part of that story.

An equally important issue, in my opinion, is the impact on health of large industrial middlemen tampering with our food, whether in the form of dangerous adulteration like trans fats, or the promiscuous use of industrial sweeteners a la hfcs, or bizarre pseudofoods like “olestra”.

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