Saturday, July 17

Great read

Hello!
A friend recommended a really great book to me called "The Butcher and the Vegetarian".
Blurb about book from Amazon:
Food-writer Weaver grew up in a Northern California vegetarian household, but later developed health issues—overwhelming fatigue and weight gain—that prompted her doctor to recommend she eat meat. She started out slowly with chicken stock and worked her way through chimichurri, chateaubriand, blood sausage, Martha Stewart’s crown roast, and barbecued meat of all sorts. The year-long experience changed her life as she encountered appealing butchers, meat clubs for girls only, and cowboys on eco-friendly ranches. Struggling with the guilt of eating flesh, she plunged into a deep examination of food as nutrition and sustenance versus the object of lust and gratification. She explores the different types and motivations of vegetarians, recalling childhood memories of wanting to be accepted among the meat-eaters and cheating outside her mother’s home. Weaver touches on the emotional, ethical, economic, nutritional, ecological, and gustatory issues involving meat and food in general that have been highlighted by Michael Pollan and others. This is a mouthwatering excursion through environmental and food issues with what may be a surprising denouement for most readers.

In the book, Weaver visits a few ranches that are trying to make their operations as eco-friendly and humane as possible. Ranches that graze cows on actual grass to slaughtering the animals in sight of the fields they grazed in, she doesn't shy away from really understanding where her food is coming from. She talks quite a bit about the ecological impact of society's food choices, and eating locally. I was kind of surprised at how much she talked about it. Its a pretty fast read, entertaining, and probably familiar since you've taken Andy's class =) .

Hope you're having a great summer!
Christina