Didn't address most of the reasons people choose to be vegetarian. Read like a long, ranty sales brochure. ( )

A shallow and disappointing read.
Doesn't seriously engage with the main issues of meat consumption:
- there is no mention of the environmental impact meat farming has (that is, the farming of the animals themselves on the environment)
- there is no engagement with the problem of moving meat around the country in trucks and the C02 that creates
- there is no engagement with the fact that there is no way to ethically feed the world meat without either destroying the environment or treating animals exceptionally badly
- there is no mention of the fact that, while meat consumption was essential to human development a few hundred thousand years ago, it now plays no significant role in human health (yes, an argument for meat consumption for pleasure can be made, but he doesn't make that argument as a contrast to the health one)

Entire argument of the book is suffused with white upper-class privilege. The author may be married to a cheesemonger in Brooklyn and have access to delis, butchers, bakers, what-have-you.
- this has no meaning for the millions of poor Americans who cannot afford a $140 turkey (even if they could find one). - this has no meaning for the millions worldwide who have no access to healthy food or the education to know what healthy food is.
- this has no meaning to the millions of people worldwide who do not even have access to clean water, much less a reliable source of food (2.7 BILLION people do not have access to safe toilets or clean water)
- this has no meaning to the millions of people who don't even have secure housing, much less a reliable job to buy themselves healthy meat.

The point that the current meat industry is inhumane is valid - the call to install cameras in slaughterhouses is disturbing but valid in calling the meat industry to task. However, this in no way negates the issues listed above. The arguments in this book are further let down - if that's even possible - by the way the author attempts to reframe the slaughter of animals. He says that animals should be 'harvested' in the right season - this is an obvious attempt to reframe what is still the killing of an animal before it's lifespan has naturally come to an end. The animal's life may have been 'happy' and it's death may have been as humane as possible. It is still, however, the killing of an animal though would have lived for years if it hadn't be killed.

A very disappointing read. I'd really hoped for a cogent, well-reasoned argument to ethically consume meat. ( )