Sometimes you need a little motivation, and I am in desperate need of that right now. I have been moving back into my old pescetarian diet, but with the random consumption of chicken. I knew it was time to read The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food. This is a book I have been avoiding for awhile, because I knew that it would scare me from meat and fish, but I need that right now.
The book, written by a vegan, uses logic and facts to really examine eating meat. I like it because the author, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is blunt about what meat consumption actually is, and what the industry is doing to us. He looks at the environment, health, and science, which reveals some scary truths, such as "It takes 13,000 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef." Yikes, that alone made me not want to eat another burger again, but the section on animal waste topped it off. He wisely aces through all of the counter-arguments for eating meat, and reveals that there is no excuse for killing. He has clearly done his research, and it shows throughout the book.
My only criticism is the introduction. I find that food writing has an obnoxious trap that I find myself falling into. It is self-indulgent. At times Masson comes across as self-righteous and oh-so-perfect. The reality is, that people aren't perfect and that pretending you are is alienating. More vegetarians and vegans need to understand that for some people conversion happens slowly, not everyone can be a born again. So, there I am, somewhere on the path towards vegetarianism, and the book helped remind me of why I am on the journey.
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