The Vegetarian Myth – food, justice, sustainability by Lierre Keith

How Do You View Vegans/Vegetarians?

Before I read this book, I knew that it could be about two things: the pros of being a vegetarian or the cons of being a vegetarian. As I began to read, I actually found out that in my opinion it was about both. If you are a vegetarian I could see how this book could offend you. This book is a powerful and very angry manifesto against the vegetarian/vegan diet. While I still have trouble digesting some of the information, I have to say, Keith does a great job collecting lots of facts, that I might already have read somewhere or other, but in their combination these facts form an argument that makes a very strong case.

Keith argues that vegan/vegetarian that partake in the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet will have health issues.. She argues that this is inconceivable, anyone will start to run into health issues on this diet. If we limit her claim to the vegan diet, I would agree with her. But a smart vegetarian life style, eating local, seasonal food, supplemented with b12 vitamins, enough raw milk products and eggs, no problem. My mom has been a vegetarian for almost 7 years now, and if anything, her health has improved.

Keith makes a compelling argument that big agriculture is just as harmful, if not more so, than the loathed meat industry. Of course it is horrendous how big agriculture depletes our top soil and how it bases its success on fertilizer made from fossil fuels. When and if fossil fuels run out, our top soil will turn to dust. After reading her book, soy and corn/wheat are definitely no longer a valid option. This is where here argumentation holds up strongest. From an ecological point of view soy and corn do not make sense at all, the ecological foot print they produce is huge. and many vegans and vegetarians do base their diets on soy and wheat, thus contributing to the negative effects they have on our environment.

Where I have a real problem with her argumentation is when she seems to suggest that the solution would be for everyone to go back to keeping some live stock, to use their manure to build up the top soil and eat the meat. We simply do not have the space for this model to work, the planet is much too crowded. She ignores the green house effect associated with live stock and the water wasted to raise them. But I agree with her that the statistics we often hear quoted by vegetarians, how many calories in grains are used to produce calories in meat, these are based only on meat industry practices, while live stock kept to eat grass would show very different numbers.

So where do I stand? I agree with some points that Keith made, but if we are calling out the vegetarians/vegans we need to take a look at every other human that has a big impact on the world.