"The Omnivore's Dilemma: Graduate Course"

"Last week I went to hear Noam Chomsky in Oakland and on a table outside the theatre I found The Vegetarian Myth. I've been reading it for the past week. I think it is one of the most important books people, masses of them, can read, as we try with all our might, intelligence, skill, hope, dream and memory, to turn the disastrous course the planet is on. Or rather that we are on because of our abuse of the planet. It's a wonderful book, full of thoughtful, soulful teachings, and appropriate rage. My admiration for Lierre's sharing of life experience and knowledge is complete. Thank you."--Alice Walker

I just finished reading one of the most deeply unsettling books of my life, The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith. It's available as both a paperback and Kindle download from Amazon, where there are plenty of reviews. Here's the most balanced and helpful one I've found:

http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=HerbivoresDliemna

Interestingly I first read about this book on the Simple Living web site when looking for something else, and was surprised to see a book that questions vegetarianism recommended on a site that surely attracts vegetarians and vegans disproportionately. The enthusiasm I found on that site was mostly based on people reclaiming their health, but The Vegetarian Myth is about far more than that. If the teachings of the Buddha are the most radical (in the sense of going directly to the root of human suffering) spiritual teachings, as I believe them to be, this book is the agricultural and dietary equivalent, going right to the root of problems that other, better-known authors (Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver come to mind) have addressed much more superficially (albeit with far more polished and less polemical prose).

Keith, a vegetarian for three decades and a strict vegan for 20 years, has written a book that is compelling on so many levels, starting with her obvious love and tenderness towards animals and the planet as a whole and her fearlessness in sharing her own journey and mistakes. As harried modern Westerners divorced from the realities of farming and its history our food choices tend to be made on a purely conceptual or emotional basis. Keith opens up a window into the Jeweled Net of Indra of our total interdependence with other species while exposing the depth of our betrayal of our planet like no one else I've read.

I was a vegetarian for only a few short years myself but despite including carefully-sourced pastured poultry and beef in my diet always bought into the idea of a grain-based, complex carbohydrate driven diet as the ideal. This book blew my mind and will change how we eat and what we support forever. Reading it brought to mind so many friends and family members with serious health conditions, ranging from diabetes to rheumatoid arthritis to gluten intolerance and celiac disease whose true root causes are made abundantly clear in its pages. This is a book that will make you sad, make you shake your head in disbelief and scurry to check its references, make you angry, and make you change the way you live. Everyone who eats should read it, and for the sake of their health and that of their families anyone who's vegetarian or vegan should read it immediately, cover to cover.