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SALT LAKE CITY, UT (krcl) – Flora welcomes writer, farmer and feminist Lierre Keith. Her book, The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability is generating excitement and controversy. Keith spent 20 years as a vegan but now argues that big agriculture is threatening the health and viability of the planet. A diet based on “more of the same” won’t help. In a lively hour, Keith makes her case while Utah’s vegan community call-in to make theirs. © Copyright 2010, krcl
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I recommend people to not swallow “The Vegetarian Myth”. I have read the book, and while it makes some valid criticisms of modern agricultural practices, it also makes a lot of invalid assertions, as well as a flood of intellectually dishonest argumentation. The most obnoxious one that made my eyes roll every single is constant anonymous references to things that ethical vegans say. She has either basically fabricated such statements or has purposefully cherry picked them. The gaping lack of drawing from, instead, named sources and sources that are intellectually educated and refines voices from the ethical vegan movement is strongly suggestive that her construction of her ideas is intellectually lopsided and distorted.
Furthermore, she has on radio refused to address criticisms head on. She’ll make claims that veganism is unhealthy, but when confronted that the world’s largest organization dedicated to dietary science says that veganism can be healthy for every stage of the lifecycle, she completely ignored the question and talked about something else. A follow-up caller brought up that she didn’t address the previous caller’s assertion and evidence, and she again refused to engage into these facts and talked about something else. She’s an intellectual hack who isn’t interested in anything or any facts that might challenge her ideas — instead she cherry picks everything and ignores the rest.
And all this was before I found websites counteracting lots of what it says, such as
http://vegetarianmythmyth.wordpress.com
http://www.vegetarianmyth.com/
Oh Flora, total let down at the end. That last caller asked the best questions all night, and you let her off the hook.
Does anyone else get the feeling that the gues is a “plant” for the free-range meat industry? haha.
My question is, how much meat, in Lierre Keith’s view, is a sustainable amount of meat to eat per week, assuming the current global population all deserves equal shares? Secondly, how many acres are you going to need to raise all those animals?
Lierre Kieth also talks about a dramatic reduction in human population being crucial–I agree–but the living biomass of cattle–156 million tonnes–is HIGHER than the living biomass of humans–100 million tonnes. So, at the very least, Lierre must concede that we must raise draaaaastically fewer cows, thus eat fewer. So how much are we allowed to consume sustainably in her scheme? Anyone read the book? I feel very dubious about this argument. Will I even be allowed enough dairy to keep up my lactose tolerance? I’m so skeptical, but still intrigued by her book.
I hate to be an antagonist, but we only get an hour per RadioActive, and honestly, if you haven’t read Keith’s book, your comments are irrelevant to me.
Sorry I didn’t get to answer that last caller’s questions (actually, I found the caller to be confrontational, counterintuitive, and hostile, if I remember correctly. Wasn’t he the one who wanted Keith to have a “public debate” on this issue, although he, too, had not bothered to read her book?) as we ran out of time.
An hour is not nearly enough time to explain a book of such rich complexity and carefully-researched, widely-reaching theses and implications. Nor is this comment board an adequate forum for the conversation anon’s questions would warrant.
Needless to say, I RECOMMEND YOU READ THE BOOK before you form any opinion at all about Keith, her book, or her concepts.
Thank you for interviewing and reporting on this issue. I have also found that I am healthier including meat in my diet, I cannot maintain a the energy or strength I need on a high carbohydrate, low-protein diet. of course, the ideal meat, as Keith states, is grass-fed, not feedlot meat.
Planned and monitored, high-density, pulsed grazing is also THE KEY to saving the ecosystems of the Western United States. This is another area in which the environmentalist left has gone awry. Wilderness areas which have excluded grazing are in far worse ecological condition than some private lands which are now managed with holistic grazing. Keith should add to her recommended websites http://www.holisticmanagement.org and http://www.savoryinstitute.com. Allan Savory, a wildlife biologist who originally hated ranchers and cows, originated the Holistic Management method on erratic-precipitation rangelands, and now asserts that planned grazing (different from rotational grazing) is the only tool that can simultaneously save rangeland ecosystems like those of the West, end global warming, and reverse global desertification.
I would be happy to address this issue with your group or radio station sometime. I also have connections with professionals in this field who can explain in depth the science of it.
Brad “Buzz” VanDyke
435-462-4575
fedsoff89@yahoo.com