I am so tired of the “diet wars” and the obsession with the overly simplistic question of more, less or even no meat. Finally, we get a book that takes on the question of “better” meat with a balanced view of the nutritional, environmental and ethical dimensions of that question.
My own journey with food and health led me into the subject of how meat is produced almost a decade ago now. The environmental dimensions have not only kept me involved in the subject, but have taken me deeper into the questions of how Earth captures and cycles solar energy. I am now a published scientific author, volunteer leader, and even entrepreneur in the space, so you might consider me biased. But I have arrived here by an improbable and even reluctant path precisely because I have followed the same science that Rodgers and Wolf have so succinctly summarized. Although there is and will remain ample room for discussion on the three chosen dimensions, Rodgers and Wolf have written a strong and balanced synthesis that serves an outstanding introduction to any reader who cares about the health of both people and planet.
I’ve chosen to add this book to my “Regenerative Agriculture Canon” that holds a very limited set of other topical explorations probing the corners of the question of how we heal the Earth by working with life instead of fighting it.
If you want to be more thoughtful about your food, and get beyond the polar perspectives of an artificial battle between carnivores and vegetarians, I highly recommend you add “Sacred Cow” to your reading list, too.
Russ Conser