The Meat You Eat: How Corporate Farming Has Endangered America's Food Supply

by Wendell Berry, Ken Midkiff

We may be gambling with our lives whenever we purchase meat, milk, or eggs in a supermarket and every time we order a burger at a fast-food restaurant because agribusinesses have allowed unsafe and unhealthy products to be sold and consumed by an unsuspecting public.The Meat You Eat explains what you should know about how the quality of our food has been greatly compromised in the name of productivity and profit. With large corporations controlling the food supply not only has our health been put at risk but the practices these companies undertake to mass-produce foods has lead to inhumane treatment of animals, lack of diversity in the food supply, as well as put a strain on the environment. Ken Midkiff argues that there are actions consumers can take. While eating a vegan or vegetarian diet is an option there are ways to keep meat, fish, eggs and more on our plates. We can use and support local farmers and sustainable farming, and demand that our supermarkets and restaurants sell organically grown, free-range, and local products.Featuring a resource guide to sustainable producers of meat, milk, and eggs across the country, The Meat You Eat is a call to arms to change the way we eat.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Health, Social Issues

240 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Wendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."

Reviews

[N.D. Wisard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ate this book up. I'm finally convinced to stay as far away as possible from meat produced by big business. Not that I wasn't against their practices before, but this book gives me (and everyone) extremely good reasons to support small farms.

Some of the information is ever so slightly outdated, but he gives so many references that it's easy to update it on your own.

[Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand and agree with the basic premise of the book: we should treat animals better even if we're going to eat them. However the book is built upon largely anecdotal evidence and has a weak bibliography backing up its claims. There must be a better book that explores this issue.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other reviewers have stated, this book doesn't pull any punches. Midkiff lays out the horrors perpetrated by agribusiness (ethical, economic, environmental, medical) and the government's complicity therein. This essentially reads like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle for the modern era, only the objective here isn't solely to illustrate the plight of the workers. The difference here is that the industrial food system has gotten to the point that in the production of animal "units" for human consumption, everyone suffers. Midkiff does an excellent job of making this point clear. The system is unsustainable.

One of the aspects of this book I particularly appreciated was the lack of political bias. Whether you're an animal rights activist or a farmer stripped of your livelihood by a feedlot or slaughterhouse, this book is for you. Midkiff says that he hasn't set out to write a book advocating vegetarianism or veganism, but to promote the support of small, sustainable farms and locally-grown meats. However, if you're looking for a reason to stop eating meat entirely, this book will certainly convince you. I myself will continue to be an omnivore, though I'm definitely going to find some alternative sources of meat and eggs in my area as soon as possible (Appendix B has a list of contact information for finding farmers' markets in each state).

I'm only giving this four stars becase Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma did an excellent job of taking a broader look at industrial food, including the menace of corn monoculture and industrial organic farming, compared to which the scope of Midkiff's work seems a little limited. However, this book is an excellent companion to Omnivore's Dilemma and I suggest you read them both.

Now if only I could figure out what to have for lunch today that won't make me feel unclean.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good.

Extremely effective if you were hoping to move towards a more vegan diet, or if you needed an excuse to start paying a "fair"/"realistic" price for meat/eggs/milk/fish at local farmer's markets or organic grocery stores. This book emphasizes sustainability and putting your money where your mouth is.

It's full of information that you likely don't know. Like about how ground beef isn't checked to make sure it's free from bacteria/diseases, whereas other cuts of meat are. Information about lots of different chemicals that are fed to animals as appetite-enhancers (like arsenic and doses of antibacterial medicines). And yes, there are some stomach-wrenching descriptions.

Provides other information about how A&M colleges in all 50 states are basically set up to provide workers for large factory farming corporations. And about the difference between the Farm Bureau claims to do and what it actually does. About various legislations that have been passed and who benefited from them.

And lots of about the environmental impact of the runoff from huge "farming" operations and how it negatively impacts the surrounding areas -- including someplace near you.

[Ethicurean Reads]

A sweeping look at humanity’s deep-rooted anxiety about the future of food. People have expressed their worries about the future of the food supply in myriad ways, and here Belasco explores a fascinating array of material ranging over 200 years. After placing food issues in historical context, he provides a framework for understanding the future of food today — when new prophets warn us against complacency at the same time that new technologies offer promising solutions.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really anything new here, but the book does approach criticism of the agribusiness industry in a simplistic manner that's easy for anyone to understand. My review may have been different had I not first read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, which I think does a better job of explaining ramifications of the industry.

Midkiff does focus on meat, and many of the processing details that I had forgotten from Fast Food Nation, which were nice to review.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very informative yet very biased at the same time. I expected nothing less then proving how wrong the meat industry is. Only telling horror stories of meat packing plants and how they effect locals around them is what Midkiff does best! I would start to skin through the first couple of pages of each chapter because I was sick of the sob stories he kept repeating. Some of my views on the meat industry has changed but I also plan to do my own research and form my own opinions too.

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good book on meat commercially produced in the US and how it is handled, and how this production effects our way of life. This is not a radical book written by vegans but an honest journalistic look at the US meat industry. It goes well with the latest ideas of moving back to small farmers and the more community based farming and organic practices.

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ate this book up. I'm finally convinced to stay as far away as possible from meat produced by big business. Not that I wasn't against their practices before, but this book gives me (and everyone) extremely good reasons to support small farms.

Some of the information is ever so slightly outdated, but he gives so many references that it's easy to update it on your own.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freaky and annoying. . . I get fired up because I work with the farm bill and cost-share. My restoration and watershed improvement projects are put on hold so that huge swimming pools of poop can be subsidized. Sad!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written... occasionally redundant, but a good balance of info from USDA, other "authorities" and actual farmers. Midkiff spares no details and does not present a "rose-colored glasses" version, which is what the American people need to hear and read.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening to a whole cycle of wrong-doing, from inhumane behavior to pollution to dirty politics. I'll be trying to support local and family farms when I eat meat! Would've scored 5 stars if it'd been slightly better written and edited.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative, if you aren't steeped in the local/organic food movement. I especially liked that it wasn't a vegan book, but a book about making better food choices between factory-farmed meat and meat that was raised sustainably. Slaughterhouse descriptions worthy of The Jungle.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the tone of this one. The word "shit" is used when it's appropriate. The author isn't trying to dance around and protect my delicate sensibilities, he's presenting his argument and doing so fairly well.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoyed "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, you'll definitely get a lot out of this book.

[Gabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

frightening detail about mad cow disease... did not stop me from eating beef.

[Lauren Tamraz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great account of the modern meat industry--very easy to read and good narrative storytelling.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very up-to date look at factory farms...and the meat you eat.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good education.

[Kimberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

didnt get to finish

[Erin Carmody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone should read this.