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The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
Peter Singer, the groundbreaking ethicist who "may be the most controversial philosopher alive" (The New Yorker), now sets his critical sights on the food we buy and eat: where it comes from, how it’s produced, and whether it was raised humanely. Singer teams up once again with attorney Jim Mason, his co-author on the acclaimed Animal Factories, as they explore the impact our food choices have on humans, animals, and the environment.
In The Way We Eat, Singer and Mason examine the eating habits of three American families with very different diets. They track down the sources of each family’s food to probe the ethical issues involved in its production and marketing. What kinds of meat are most humane to eat? Is "organic" always better? Wild fish or farmed? Recognizing that not all of us will become vegetarians, Singer and Mason offer ways to make the best food choices. As they point out: "You can be ethical without being fanatical."
An
Unnatural Order: Why We Are Destroying the Planet and Each Other
Coauthor with
Peter Singer of Animal Factories, the classic exposé of
the cruelty of mechanized animal farming and slaughter, Mason here
writes an eloquent, important plea for a total rethinking of our
relationship to the animal world. He analyzes the West's "dominionist" worldview
which exalts humans as overlords and owners of other life, an outlook
that he believes is rooted in millennia of animal husbandry.
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Speculating that dominionism arose with the transition from ancient mother-goddess religions to patriarchy, he ambitiously links our current exploitation and domination of nature to fears of our own animal nature, repressive antisexual attitudes, misogyny, curtailment of women's power, racism and colonialism.
Human brains and thought processes evolved through close contact with animals, Mason argues, and restoring our kinship with animals is central to bridging the rift between humanity and nature. His powerfully argued manifesto will change many readers' attitudes toward hamburgers, animal experimentation, hunting and circuses.
Read
more about the book in Reviews at
Amazon,
as well as A Summary of the book,
and What Readers Have to Say...
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Animal
Factories
Unrestrained
technology
applied to animals, fueled by the desire for increased profit, exacts
a price on human values, the environment, the health of consumers
and the welfare of small farmers that we can no longer afford to
pay. Mason and Singer address these problems and offer solutions
in Animal Factories Update. Black-and-white photographs.
Although Animal Factories is currently out of print, used book stores may still stock some highly prized copies. Visit Amazon to find a used copy of Animal Factories. And stay tuned for Mason's upcoming book along the same theme!
See what Readers Have to Say about Animal Factories.
Not a book, but definitely noteworthy:
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Peaceable
Kingdom: A Video Documentary
At a time when the public is more concerned than ever about the health
and environmental problems associated with large-scale factory farming,
Peaceable Kingdom explores another angle of this unfolding story:
the interconnected life journeys of farm animals, former farmers,
and animal rescuers struggling against an out of control industrial
system.
Breaking generations of silence in the farm community, Peaceable Kingdom weaves together themes of respect, forgiveness, commitment, and healing, offering a vision of a more peaceful world that is well within our reach.
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For his book, Animal Factories, Jim Mason, who grew up on a Missouri farm, traveled over 10,000 miles across North America to document the shocking conditions on factory farms.
It is not easy to sit down in front of a camera and share powerfully emotional personal truths, painful memories, and tender thoughts and feelings about the very things one considers most precious and most at risk in this world. In fact, such things are rarely spoken of, even between the closest of friends. Yet each person who appears as a subject in Peaceable Kingdom did just that, and in the process, gave the future audiences of the film a rare gift.
Peaceable Kingdom: Viewer Comments
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