Meathooked, by Marta Zaraska
Meat: juicy, savory, mouthwatering, drool-inducing. The practice of eating meat has a long history, and Zaraska takes us all the way back to the beginning (seriously, we're talking algae and bacteria here) to unpack just what about eating meat seems so fundamental to the human condition. Zaraska is a vegetarian, and while she makes no effort to hide an agenda of getting people to eat less no meat, her exploration of the subject is mostly unbiased. People choose to forgo meat for a lot of different reasons - health, ethics, the environment, cost - but nearly all of those people still occasionally crave it. Meathooked is Zaraska's research into how that happens, and why it's so hard to completely give up meat even for people who are otherwise disgusted by it.
Meat's hold on humanity is multilayered. Zaraska looks at several reasons why people love meat, ranging from the scientific - that umami flavor we just can't seem to get enough of - to the socioeconomic - since the beginnings of human evolution, meat has represented wealth, power, and masculinity. There's a lot of reasons for giving up meat, but Zaraska makes a point of explaining that being judgmental of meat-eaters or expecting people to suddenly become completely vegan isn't at all reasonable, making this an informative book that omnivores won't feel preached to while reading.
It's hard to say how the book would be received by those with differing viewpoints on eating meat. I myself eat more vegetarian meals than meat meals but happily chow down on meats of all kinds, and I'm inclined to agree with her conclusions anyways. Would a dedicated meat-eater be swayed by her arguments? Possibly, but it probably depends on the issues they care about most. Many people are now well-aware of the cruelty of raising livestock in factory conditions but that hasn't lessened meat consumption, nor has the growing body of scientific literature about how meat can affect your body (and yes, I'm aware that for some people, meat is a healer rather than hurtful); more persuasive, for some, might be the environmental costs of livestock farming. Am I going to stop eating meat after reading this book? No, but I might eat a little less of it, and will certainly keep an interested eye on the growing business of meat-alternatives, like lab grown meat. As the population grows, the climate changes, and space gets harder to come by, the human love affair with meat will no doubt change dramatically, and I'm curious to see just how that happens, and when.
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Meat's hold on humanity is multilayered. Zaraska looks at several reasons why people love meat, ranging from the scientific - that umami flavor we just can't seem to get enough of - to the socioeconomic - since the beginnings of human evolution, meat has represented wealth, power, and masculinity. There's a lot of reasons for giving up meat, but Zaraska makes a point of explaining that being judgmental of meat-eaters or expecting people to suddenly become completely vegan isn't at all reasonable, making this an informative book that omnivores won't feel preached to while reading.
It's hard to say how the book would be received by those with differing viewpoints on eating meat. I myself eat more vegetarian meals than meat meals but happily chow down on meats of all kinds, and I'm inclined to agree with her conclusions anyways. Would a dedicated meat-eater be swayed by her arguments? Possibly, but it probably depends on the issues they care about most. Many people are now well-aware of the cruelty of raising livestock in factory conditions but that hasn't lessened meat consumption, nor has the growing body of scientific literature about how meat can affect your body (and yes, I'm aware that for some people, meat is a healer rather than hurtful); more persuasive, for some, might be the environmental costs of livestock farming. Am I going to stop eating meat after reading this book? No, but I might eat a little less of it, and will certainly keep an interested eye on the growing business of meat-alternatives, like lab grown meat. As the population grows, the climate changes, and space gets harder to come by, the human love affair with meat will no doubt change dramatically, and I'm curious to see just how that happens, and when.
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