Product Description

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 per cent 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117115 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From the Publisher
By leading philosopher Peter Singer and environmentalist Jim Mason, a hard-hitting and thought-provoking exploration of the ethics of our diets.

From the Back Cover
We don't usually think of what we eat as a matter of morality - that our decisions about food might be morally right - or morally reprehensible. Stealing, lying, hurting people - these acts are clearly related to our moral character. But eating - that essential part of life in which everyone participates?

Yet today 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 sales of eggs from caged hens in value. 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 can our individual decisions about food contribute to a sustainable future?

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. And 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.

Written with investigative vigour, provocative and controversial but always accessible, Eating is a hard-hitting book that addresses difficult questions that will only become more crucial to our future.

About the Author
Peter Singer has published over 30 books including Writings on an Ethical Life, Animal Liberation, and most recently, The President of Good and Evil. Singer is currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values. He lives in New York City. Jim Mason is an author, speaker, journalist, environmentalist and attorney. He is the author of many books including Animal Factories, co-written with Peter Singer. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications including the New York Times, the New Scientist and Audubon.

Customer Reviews

British buyers beware!
Let me say first that the principles and ideas behind this book are entirely sound - finding out where our food comes from, how and why it is produced and how we can make more informed choices is crucial if you have any shred of conscience about the world we live in. And this book looks thoroughly and sensibly at these issues. BUT although it is a British publication, all the case studies (and indeed all the spelling!) are American which makes it very hard to maintain interest and to see any relevance to British consumers. If only there was a book like this using British examples...

Sensational - everyone should read this book.
This was quite simply one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Apart from the fascinating subject discussed, the writing is superb. Although the book follows 3 American families, it could quite easily have followed 3 British families with no difficulty at all to the British reader - simply substitute Asda for Walmart etc. How the previous reviewer can say British readers will find it difficult to maintain interest is beyond me.

The book follows the eating habits of 3 very different American families. One is on a low wage and buys the cheapest food products available. The other two families have larger disposable incomes, one buys ethically and organically where possible, whilst the other is vegan. The books looks at the reasons for their eating habits, and the history of where and how each item of food they buy has been produced. The book makes plenty of references to UK equivalents and, at the risk of repeating myself, it really isn't difficult for British readers to follow. After all, a chicken is a chicken and a slaughterhouse is a slaughterhouse.

One of the previous reviewers criticises the book because it doesn't spend enough time discussing the hardships of the people producing the food. I find that criticism quite extraordinary. Firstly it is completely incorrect, and secondly even if it were true, the book is about food, not the people producing it.

It was probably impossible for the authors to have reached any other conclusions than the one they reached. However this book is not "a polemic disguised as a debate about how food is produced." The book looks at cold hard facts, digests those facts and reaches obvious conclusions. Even if the ethical arguments don't convince readers to stop eating meat, the environmental and health impacts should - if these are difficult for meat-eaters to accept, then so be it.

In conclusion, this was one of the best books I have read in years.

Why Only Vegans Can Save the Earth....
The authors follow three different American families tracing the source of the food that these very different people collect from their, mainly, supermarket shopping. As such, it's an interesting examination of how even the more 'aware' consumer can have problems identifying food that hasn't been produced at an unacceptable cost to the environment or the workforce (but there's VERY little about the actual people labouring to produce the food here). But as the authors take you along, there are some things that don't quite chime. I got the impression that what they were doing was setting up a series of extreme scenarios to contrast with what is the main conclusion of the book, i.e., that veganism is the only correct way to live your life both for the future of the planet and, of course, as the book states rather boldly, practically all vegans live into their 90s, keep a full head of hair and have better dress sense than the rest of us.

At the end I was left feeling this was a polemic disguised as a debate about how food is produced. Yes, there is a cost to be paid for factory farming but the authors are silent on why poverty exists across the world, how global corporations exploit the status quo and, ultimately, why low earning families will keep coming back for chicken at £2 a go even if that means they're bred in quite appalling conditions. Right now I can afford to choose to buy free range eggs and I grow my own vegetables, whilst stopping short of knitting my own yoghurt, but there is a price to those choices that not everyone can afford. Yes, they'll be one hell of a price if things do not change but people have to deal with the here and now before that change can take place. More about how to do that would have made for a better book - in my view.