The Vegetarian Myth

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability is a 2009 book by Lierre Keith. Keith is an ex-vegan who believes veganism has damaged her health and others'.[1] Keith argues that agriculture is destroying not only human health but entire ecosystems, such as the North American prairie, and destroying topsoil.[2][3] Keith also considers modern agriculture to be the root cause of slavery, imperialism, militarism, chronic hunger and disease.[4]

Keith argues humans should accept death as a necessary precursor to food[5] in that "everyone will get eaten, sooner or later". In sum. Her proposition is that herbivores eat grass, humans eat herbivores, and then (eventually) worms/bacteria/etc. eat humans.[6]

Reception

The book resulted in extreme controversy, going as far as Keith being physically assaulted at a book reading.[7] Aric McBay says that Keith is not being provocative for the sake of it, rather she believes vegetarians have the right impulse but are misinformed about the facts.[8] Ian Fitzpatrick wrote that the book is at the core about the unsustainable nature of modern agriculture, but is "disguised" as a treatise against vegetarianism.[9] Susan Schenck said the book was "full of hard core indisputable research". She agrees with the book's discounting of the contested scientific hypothesis on the effects of cholesterol on coronary heart disease. She further agrees with the book's claims linking soy with several ailments.[10] However Schenck disagrees that vegetarians are necessarily unhealthy, believing each individual has different abilities to synthesize the needed nutrients from different foods.[10] Patrick Nicholson writes that the book misinterprets scientific articles, cherry-picks facts, uses strawman arguments and relies heavily on anecdotes and faulty generalisations.[5] John Sanbonmatsu interprets Keith's rhetoric as apocalyptic and millenarian. He argues that Keith's nutritional arguments are grounded on anecdotes and lacks proper scientific backing.[4]

References
  1. Keith Goetzman (May 22, 2009). "Are Vegetarians Living a Lie?". Utne Reader. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  2. Uttarika Kumaran (February 20, 2010). "Vegan Wars". Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  3. "One Author's Take on "The Vegetarian Myth"". TreeHugger. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  4. Sanbonmatsu, J. (2017) Blood and Soil: Notes on Lierre Keith, Locavores, and Death Fetishism Upping the Anti (Issue 12)
  5. Nicholson, P. (2011) Simon Fairlie, Meat: A benign extravagance; Lierre Keith, The Vegetarian Myth: Food, justice and sustainability; and Bob Torres and Jenna Torres, Vegan Freak: Being vegan in a non-vegan world Peace News (Issue 2534)
  6. "Review, The Vegetarian Myth - Issue 384". Fifth Estate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  7. Lane, Walker (Spring 2011). "The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability/Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World". Fifth Estate. 46 (1). Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  8. McBay, Aric (January 2009). "The Herbivore's Dilemma". Briarpatch. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  9. Fitzpatrick, Ian (May 2010). "The Vegetarian Myth". New Internationalist. Issue 432. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  10. Schenck, Susan (October 19, 2009). "Book Review: The Vegetarian Myth By Lierre Keith". McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington.
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