Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating

by Erik Marcus

Book Overview

This book shows why a change in what you eat can be simple and yet significant. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0935526870
• ISBN13: 9780935526875
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: McBooks Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A startling eye-opener!!

Erik Marcus, operator of Vegan.com (an excellent website, btw), reaches out to vegan and non-vegan alike with "Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating". As a previous vegeterian who still enjoyed ice cream and eggs, I thought that abstaining from meat still helped animals as well as my health. After reading this book, I can see my reasoning was flawed! The dairy and meat industries are closely linked.For example, if you shy from meat but still drink milk, you're continuing the endless cycle of cows being impregnated (like other mammals, cows don't produce milk unless they give birth). The cows are then milked for it all (pun not intended!), and when they're worn out after a few years, their exhausted carcasses are sold to be ground up into low-grade fastfood hamburgers. But wait, what about all the calves being born so the cow produces that milk? Female babies replace their mothers for years of endless pregnancy, milking, and infection. The male calves, who have no use in the milk process, are stuffed into veal crates and fed an anemic diet of watered-down formula for their short lives ... before they're lead to the slaughterhouse.Shocked? I know I was! I'd always disliked milk but loved ice cream (now, I enjoy Soy Delicious soy "ice cream" ... yummy!). Besides the ethics of eating these tortured animals, Marcus also points out the health aspects. Obesity, numberous cancers, heart attacks, angiograms, and many other diseases kill or severely limit the life quality of millions of Westerners. In Asian countries, where low-fat, plant-based diets are the norm, these diseases are virtually unheard of (and I'd like to point out that, at 19 years old, I no longer have perpetual headcolds or the baby fat from years of eating animal products). Included in the book is a chapter on how the beef industry routinely grinds up cattle into "protein concentrates" to feed back to the herd (thus spawning Mad Cow) and how the dairy industry targets young children from the moment they step into a school with tales of "milk is great for you!!". Neither industry mentions that the animals (and thus their products) are pumped full of chemicals, so the paying customer is also ingesting the same! For example, chickens have been genetically modified to grow HUGE in a shorter amount of time than they did 25 years ago. After six weeks of age, 26 % of chickens die from heart attacks thanks to the chemicals and increased growth spurts, which explains why broiler hens are slaughtered before then. Do you really want to eat that??Also included is a chapter on how cattle ranching is gobbling up America's natural terrain and that meat production contributes to world hunger (I believe the exact number was it takes the same amount of water and land to produce 16 pounds of grain as to make 1 pound of beef ... you can definitely feed more people with that much grain!! Contrast that to 1 pound of beef ... how many folks can you feed that to??).So the book isn't totally filled b

Hooray for Responsible Eaters!

This is a fantastic book that gives a persuasive case for vegetarianism. The only books out there that are better are Kerry Walters's Ethical Vegetarianism from Pythagoras to Peter Singer and Mary Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet. You can quit eating meat for health reasons, but the bottom line is that carnivorism inflicts suffering and death on innocent creatures. Read Marcus, Walters, Lappe, and others, and go veggie!

Convincing Poignant Argument For Veganism

Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating is a very convincing and poignant concise argument sure to convince any meat eater or vegetarian to dedicate and change their lives to veganism. I have read many books on the subject, this is the first one I feel comfortable giving to my in-laws. The Farm Sanctuary stories are my favorites!

I'm sending this book to all my meat-eating friends/family

I've been a vegetarian for about three years now and am just beginning to switch to a completely vegan diet. Not only has this book reaffirmed my decision but it has convinced me that I need to make a much stronger effort to educate my meat-eating friends and family about why they too should consider eliminating animal products from their diet. I'm going to begin by sending a copy of this book to all of them. Marcus delivers the message about the drawbacks and dangers of eating meat in a non-inflammatory but nonetheless imperative manner that even the most die-hard meat-eaters will find hard to ignore. In particular, I think Marcus was wise to spend the first several chapters of the book focusing on the medical problems associated with eating meat and the powerful healing effect of switching to a vegan diet. Although I believe concern for the environment and animal welfare are equally good reasons to go vegan, I appreciate the fact that diving right into those arguments can turn some people off. When Marcus does bring up those issues, he does so tactfully but without losing any of the poignancy needed to make people understand why the institutional slaughter of animals is so horrific.This is a very important book because it has the power to help those of us who are already vegetarians explain to the people we love why they should become vegetarians too.

Fantastic! Opens your eyes and your mind!

"Vegan" is an absolutely wonderful book! Facts are presented clearly and fairly. This is not a book bashing carnivores or people who wear leather shoes. There are no "guilt trips" or "scare tactics" used to try and trick the reader in to adapting a vegan lifestlye. Rather, it contains clearly-stated, well-documented facts regarding health, the environment, and animal rights issues. I sent copies to all my family members to help them understand the reasons why I feel this lifestyle is the correct choice for me. "Vegan" is very educational. I would enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about better health or saving the planet and/or the animals that live here. (including humans!) This book is not "preachy" at all. You won't walk away feeling hopeless, like the world is in terrible, unchangeable shape. Instead you will find yourself excited and happy- feeling that you actually have a little p! iece of that knowledge key that can help make a difference in the quality of your (and everyone elses) life!