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VEGGIE TALES
Why more people are considering taking animals off the dinner table
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Sure, eating exotic meats, organs and body parts is a badge of honor among modern foodies. But while nose-to-tail eaters are savoring everything from intestines to tongues, some people are finding it harder than ever to ignore the widely publicized realities of industrial meat production. As such, we are seeing a rebirth of vegetarianism and veganism, with the same people who once savored burgers and
haute dogs
now questioning their carnivorous instincts. Hot on the heels of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, these three books are also currently adding fuel to the fire:
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Eating Animals
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Fatherhood changes things for most guys. But for author Jonathan Safran Foer, it didn't just mean the arrival of dirty diapers and sleepless nights. Rather, he took a step away from writing fiction to explore the ethical dilemma of eating meat. In Eating Animals, Foer sneaks into a factory farm with an animal rights activist and discovers genetically mutated creatures who can't walk or breed, haphazard killing methods that leave many animals half alive when they are boiled or skinned, and tons of excrement. Interestingly enough, Foer doesn't drop his post-modern style just because he is no longer writing fiction. He plays with language almost too skillfully, incorporating comics at the start of each chapter, as well as short narratives and a faux dictionary of terms. One thing made clear in Foer's book is that, these days, consumers have both the benefit and the burden of knowing exactly where their chicken nuggets come from.
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The Face on Your Plate
: Most of us can remember a moment when we realized that the delicious food we were eating was once a living thing. (For us, this moment came when we were ten and our uncle told us to eat up because the meal on our sizzling plates was a cousin of our precious Bunny.) It's this "transformative moment" that
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson hopes to bring to readers in this book. He wants us to look down at our Orange Chicken or Beef Pad Thai and acknowledge that each forkful came from a living creature that he believes is entirely capable of happiness and suffering. Whether or not his book's biological facts and theories constitute a transformative moment for you, it certainly has us looking askance at our lunch special.
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The Kind Diet
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If, after reading the two aforementioned books, the idea of eating anything that once had a face makes you a bit queasy, you might want to pick up a copy of this new vegan cookbook penned by Alicia Silverstone. Those of us who have watched Clueless, like, a million times and have never fully lost our Valley Girl accents (despite being raised in the Midwest) may be more apt to trust Silverstone with our shoe collections than our appetites.But the actress really does know a lot about cutting the bacon out of your diet. A full-throttle vegan for more than eight years, she wrote this recipe and lifestyle book for the "people who just want to feel amazing, want to look amazing, and who want to contribute to making this planet healthier." She smartly doesn't assume that everyone can dive headfirst into a life without brie, and so the book is divided into three levels of veganism: Flirts, Vegans, and Superheroes. Since being a Superhero means no meat, dairy, sugar, white pasta or bread, and only certain fruits and vegetables, we might just stay in the Flirting stage indefinitely.
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