The Meat You Eat

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year

In this book, Sierra Club director Ken Midkiff exposes the dangers posed by corporate control of agriculture (agribusiness)—to our health as human beings, and to the health of the nation's economy and security and the environment at large.

The Meat You Eat explores the current practices of corporations that have taken over the raising and slaughtering of farm animals (and farmed fish, such as salmon). These companies use a model that has transformed livestock farming from quality-driven, family-owned operations into big businesses concerned with volume, efficiency, uniformity, and profits above all. Thus, Midkiff reveals the true cost of agribusiness on all levels—environmental, financial, moral, legal, and medical—while balancing startling findings and truths with practical answers and solutions.

Rather than advocate a vegetarian diet, Midkiff argues that using and supporting local farmers will improve the quality of life for us all, as well as for the animals whose meat we eat. Complete with resource sections about where to find local farmers and lists of agribusiness culprits, this book encourages all of us to take an active interest in what we put on our plates and in our months, and to use the power of our pocketbooks to make it clear that our health, our environment, and our communities are of vital importance.

With a foreword by Wendell Berry—hailed by The New York Times Book Review as the "great moral essayist of our day"—The Meat You Eat is an informative and important—and loud and clear—call to arms.