Eating Earth
Synopsis
A three-dimensional look at animal species and their exploitation for the habits and convenience of humans, especially Americans. Kemmerer’s slim book covers three major topics: animal agriculture, fishing, and hunting. Besides presenting mountains of statistics. graphics, and data – all meticulously researched and sourced – Kemmerer lays out, in parallel, compelling moral arguments for humanity to convert to a plant-based diet. She also describes how long-entrenched, sometimes obsolete government programs and policies perpetuate these cruel and unsustainable practices. Even worse, taxpayers unknowingly support them, for the benefit of moneyed interests who profit from them.
Roger Gloss (on goodreads), author and activist
Chapter 1: Farming Facts
Chapter 1 examines environmental devastation stemming from anymal agriculture, including greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, water pollution and dead zones, freshwater depletion, deforestation, soil degradation, predator control, and the exploitation and degradation of public lands by the ranching industry. This chapter also debunks the myths of grass-fed, local, and organic as environmentally preferrable options.
No matter what comfort-the-consumer label is placed on the final product, purchasing meat, dairy, and eggs demonstrates reckless disregard for the environment and is unconscionable when vegan foods are available and affordable—and bulk vegan staples are generally less expensive than animal products.
Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Grass-fed meat is an environmental nightmare perpetuated by elitists who refuse to change their eating habits.
Eating Earth
Chapter 2: A Fishy Business
Chapter 2 investigates the environmental effects of fishing, exposing the indiscriminate nature of methods and the resultant tragedy of bycatch (or bykill), culminating in the silent collapse of ocean ecosystems. The chapter explores the biology of fishes, mercury poisoning (caused by eating fishes), aquaculture, and deceptive methods of “solving” the problem such as improved fishing technologies and “sustainable” fishing.
We tend to have a general sense that the earth’s waters, and the quantity of life forms within, are indomitable—as we used to feel about North American forests and wildlife, perhaps most famously, the bison of the Great Plains region. But marine ecosystems are on the verge of ecological collapse, and this is the case because we choose to eat sea creatures—lots of them. Human beings are devouring ocean inhabitants at unprecedented rates, destroying fragile marine ecosystems in the process.
Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Whether or not we care, and whether or not we are aware, fish commonly listed on menus are now listed as endangered.
Eating Earth
Chapter 3: Hunting Hype
Chapter 3, focused on the environmental impacts of hunting, begins by exposing the historic connection between the U. S. Government—personal interests in wildlife “management” and hunting among empowered leaders—and “wildlife management.” The chapter systematically debunks common misconceptions about hunting, including the oft-claimed assertion that hunters fund conservation, hunting as merciful (and therefore moral), the deceit of “fair chase,” the falsehood of hunting as an economic choice, and the misnomer of hunting as a “tradition.”
Honesty, while sometimes disturbing, offers much-needed clarity. North Americans hunt for pleasure, not for sustenance. Perhaps the best proof of this is that hunters kill some twenty-five million mourning doves, sixteen million squirrels, two million woodchucks, half a million prairie dogs, six hundred thousand crows, and sixty one thousand skunks annually. Anyone insisting that hunters consume all that they kill must eat crow, or perhaps something even less palatable. Skunk stew, anyone?
Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Image from Eating Earth
Contemporary environmentalists in the U.S. who align with or support hunters and hunting do so at the expense of their mission—and therefore at the expense of their own integrity.
Eating Earth