Jacy ReeseBesprekingen

I found The End of Animal Farming to be a fascinating read. While I was familiar with the practices of factory farming on a surface level, I found that this book definitely added to my knowledge and allowed me to further consider the merits of a meatless life style without seeming “preachy” or judgmental. Am I a vegan? No. Do I plan to adopt a vegan life style in the near future? No. However, I do believe that small steps can lead to big changes, and I can see how the proposed strategies in this book can change the factory farming industry.

I have noticed three main reasons for people practicing a meatless lifestyle since becoming vegan about a year ago. Some embrace one reason, others two, and I am sure a few adhere to all three. My primary reason, and I believe it to be the most important reason of all, is that it is simply a healthier way to live. The second reason is a growing belief that raising animals is a major contributor to climate change. There also is genuine compassion for animals by many who are determined to stop animal cruelty. Jacy Reese argues articulately about ending animal farming. He touches on all of the reasons in his book, The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists are Building An Animal-Free Food System.

The 26-year-old graduate of the University of Texas at Austin may be perceived as a youthful idealist. He truly believes in the future of animal-free meat as a successful, sustainable reality. He thinks people will buy into this as a natural meat alternative. We certainly have a long way to go before this totally comes about.

On second thought though, perhaps it's closer than we think. Have you paid attention to the growing number of meat alternatives cropping up in the food industry? The food industry is already starting to listen. Over the past few months the food industry has already made some big leaps in offering new meatless options. We are on the cusp of major change, and Reese has produced a book that's timely.

Reese tells us one-hundred-billion animals now live on world farms. He sees this as an atrocity and wants to end it. He possesses admirable compassion for these animals and presents us with reason to go meatless. It would be nice to dine with this fine man.

Reese makes an utterly optimistic case for the future of animal farming in this book. The future of a meatless society is one that he can almost taste. Philosophically speaking, Reese did not add anything new to the conversation. Where this book adds to the animal advocates library is in the breakdown of corporations and entrepreneurs who are struggling with the advocates to create a meatless society that can satisfy those less inclined to leave their meat behind. However, this is also where the book falls short. Without taking notes, company and entrepreneurs names get lost in the rattle. Some of the stories stick, but the overall content gets lost in monotony. With that said, this book makes a decent companion for Jonathan Safran Foer’s, Eating Animals. Because of the size of the book, it is not a large time commitment to read, and the reader will most assuredly come out with new information on the future of animal farming.½

It was a pleasant surprise to see a book on vegetarian / vegan issues that focused more on pragmatic strategies and the development of future alternatives than preaching to the "Thous Shalt Not" choir.

While I am not vegetarian or vegan, I am interested in the general morality behind the argument to end animal farming. I fully support the scientific breakthroughs being made towards cultured meat, as well as the expansion of plant-based foods. This book did an excellent job of explaining the various options in existence or being developed to reduce the use of animal farming. It also did not shy away from explaining the errors that advocates promoting the end of animal farming have made. Maintaining morality as a focal point led to a well-rounded review of the options, and an optimistic (though achievable) vision for the future.

As a vegetarian for the past 17 years, I was hoping this book would shed more light on why to stop farming and eating animals, as a tool to help win arguments with my carnivorous loved ones. It went in a completely different direction than that, in an interesting way. Reese describes some of the alternatives to produce normal animal products, without harming any animals. Cultured meat!! Whoa!! However some of these are so new, there wasn't any real evidence that this is healthy or will be going mainstream anytime. Of course the author made great case points regarding actual animal farming, that I'm pretty sure most of the world already knows about, just a majority turn a blind eye. Overall, this was intriguing with the ideas and plant based products, however some chapters were a little too scientific at times and lost my interest.

I asked for this book while supposing it would be primarily about how meat is being grown in vitro, that is in a laboratory setting. But in fact the book consists primarily of discussing strategies designed to end the eating of animals and animal products by people. There is not much about WHY it is desirable to stop using animal products--the moral, health, and environmental reasons for doing so. Nor is there much about how the nutrition from animal products can be conveniently replaced. All of this is just assumed. I share many of the author's concerns and beliefs. Having an agricultural background, I know just how awful factory farming is and how old fashioned, free range keeping of animals has its own problems. And it is good to know that so many non-profit organizations, start-ups, and dedicated individuals are working toward the end of animal exploitation. Still this books is primarily for people like myself who share its values--not for people still needing to be convinced or wanting more information about how animal products are likely to be replaced.

I loved this book. It got a little dry in places and didn't hold my interest in spots or else it would have gotten 5 stars.
I am a meat eater that is finding it harder and harder to separate the meat on my plate from the pain involved in getting it there.
I am all in for the lab created meat. Can't wait till it is available.
A man I work with saw what I was reading and asked about it. When I explained it to him, he looked at me like I had a tin foil hat on my head.
Hopefully change will come soon.

I've read a number of books in this genre, as I always find the developments interesting and would ideally not be eating meat (although I still do). This one had some interesting discussion of some of the new methods of creating meat not from animals, although at times it felt more technical than oriented toward the lay reader. I thought it perhaps could have been edited to be more compelling but nonetheless found it worthwhile.

Still have not received the book. Waiting.............................12/29 still no sign of the book