The Ethics of What We Eat
Author(s): Peter Singer and Jim Mason
Meet three different families with three different lifestyles.
The Hillard-Nierstheimer family exemplifies the standard meat-and-potatoes diet: they shop at the local supermarket, occasionally eat fast food, and enjoy their meat, Coke and beer. The Masarech-Motavalli family is concerned about its health and generally buys fresh, locally grown vegetables. They call themselves 'caring carnivores' - they'll only eat meat from animals raised to humane standards. The Farb family is vegan: nothing they eat comes from an animal, and wherever possible they buy organic Peter Singer and Jim Mason take a standard meal enjoyed by each family and trace its ingredients back through the production process to see what ethical issues arise. From turekeys specially bred to have massive breasts so they can no longer stand up, to chickens dropped alive into boiling water; from revelations of child and forced labour on coffee plantations, to the lack of policing of the term 'organic'.
Tthe authors raise questions about people's everyday food choices and challenge us to think before we buy. After all, we must eat. On what should conscientious consumbers dined And what is all this stuff doing to our health What Singer and Mason discover about food choices and their links to human health, animal suffering and environmental degradation will shock and challenge you.
Containing essential information on ethical but practical shopping and dining, The Ethics of What We Eat will forever change the way you look at food. 'An absolutely indispensable book for anyone who thinks about what they eat.
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I cannot recommend it highly enough.' --Jeffrey Masson author of When Elephants Weep and Raising the Peaceable Kingdom 'In this well-researched and deeply troubling book, Peter Singer and Jim Mason paint a devastating portrait of the American meat industry that is bound to change the way you eat.' -- Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma 'In their new book; commonsense in its approach, easy to read, packed with information; Peter Singer and Jim Mason show how market forces inexorably drive farmers toward cruel practices. But their overall message is not bleak. Factory farming is under pressure to justify itself. The day may not be far when we will return to a more ethical treatment of fellow animals, and there are many practical things that ordinary consumers can do to bring that day nearer.'-- J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace .
Peter Singer is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He went to Princeton in 1999 after spending most of his life in Australia. Author or editor of over 25 books on ethics, Singer is best known for Animal Liberation, widely credited with starting the animal rights movement. The New Yorker has said: 'Peter Singer may be the most controversial philosopher alive; he is certainly among the most influential.'
Jim Mason grew up on a farm in Missouri, the fifth generation in a family of farmers. He is an author, lecturer, journalist, environmentalist and lawyer who specialises in human/animal concerns. He is best known for his book Animal Factories, also written with Peter Singer.
General Fields
- :
- : Text Publishing Co
- : The Text Publishing Company
- : 01 May 2006
- : Australia
- : books
Special Fields
- : Peter Singer and Jim Mason
- : Paperback
- : 2006
- : 613.2
- : 400
- : The environment; Ethics & moral philosophy; Food manufacturing & related industries
