Eating Earth: Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choice

Dr. lisa kemmerer

ISBN: ‎ 978-0199391844
Publisher: Oxford, 2015

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Overview

Uniquely, Eating Earth focuses on three subjects that ought to be—but are not—found between the covers of any other single book: animal agriculture, the fishing industry, and hunting. In this compact, easy read Dr. Kemmerer’s concise, complete, and fact-filled chapters provides 44 summary slides and 34 graphs and diagrams to explore the effects of what we choose to eat on deforestation, freshwater loss, dead zones, species extinction, and climate change. With a healthy dose of wry humor, Dr. Kemmerer sets out to answer one clear question: Can an environmentalist who is both sincere and informed legitimately choose to be omnivorous—or even vegetarian?  

Read Book Introduction

Book Quotes

“Food choices are the number one determinant of an individual’s environmental footprint.”

— Eating Earth: Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choice

“Eating animals is eating earth. Either the foods we choose are linked with high greenhouse gas emissions, or they are not. Either the foods we serve for lunch cause considerable ecosystem disruption, or they do not. . . . How can we legitimately consider ourselves to be environmentalists if concern for the planet does not guide our most basic daily choices? On what rational grounds would sincere, informed environmentalists choose to support the most environmentally damaging industries and practices with their consumer dollars?”

— Eating Earth: Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choice

“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: Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choice

“Whether or not we care, and whether or not we are aware, fish commonly listed on menus are now listed as endangered.”

— Eating Earth: Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choice

  • “A thorough overview of the environmental and ethical problems involved with farming, the fishing industry, and hunting, all within an easy-to-read, short book. Kemmerer accomplishes three times as much in a book that is a quarter the length of Pollan’s best seller.”

    Environmental Values

  • “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”

    — Roger Gloss, author

  • “In her fact-filled, non-judgmental, and well-illustrated book, Dr. Kemmerer shows how animal protectionists can and should work alongside environmentalists to begin to stop the wanton, unnecessary, and irreversible destruction of Earth's fragile ecosystems brought about by our dietary choices."

    — Marc Bekoff (PhD), Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

  • “The author clearly states that animal products, whether organic or local, whether hunted or purchased, whether chicken or fish or yogurt, harm the environment and that humans should eat plant-based foods if they really care about Earth.”

    —Vegetarian Resource Group

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Animals and World Religions

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Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice