Customer Reviews

Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been considering adopting a vegan diet for the past few months, and frankly this book resolved a lot of my doubts about making that choice. Other books I've read on this issue seemed so histrionic and over-the-top that they made veganism LESS attractive, and left me feeling guilty and selfish that I was "more interested" in dietary health than moral enlightenment.

Marcus's book, on the other hand, is very direct and balanced, and he writes with refreshing humility and frankness. His statements simply speak truth, without the typical dramatics or air of moral superiority so often utilized by others.

Just sign me Vegan-in-the-Making.

A fabulous read. Unlike many other vegan authors, Erik Markus makes the case for veganism (extremely well) by stating the facts. The book is all the more powerful for the matter of fact approach Markus adopts. Buy it now. If you're thinking about becoming vegan, this book will confirm time and again, that you'll be making the right choice.

This book will not tell you the hows, but it certainly will tell you the whys. "Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating" is split into three sections: the health reasons, the abuse food animals endure, and the devastating effect animal "agriculture" has on our planet.

In detailing health reasons, Marcus talks with Drs. Dean Ornish and Terry Shintani, who devised near-vegan diets for patients and met with success. Ornish's trials have shown actual reversal of heart disease with his low-fat, near-vegan diet. Shintani created the Eat More Index, based on the theory that humans need three to four pounds of food a day, and approximately 2,500 calories. He determined how many pounds of food would be 2,500 calories. Most vegetable products (nuts, oils and avocadoes excluded) were remarkably high, while animal products were nightmarishly low. He theorized that people weren't eating too much, but eating the wrong foods. This section also details the mad cow epidemic in Great Britain and the government's blind eye to the problem. Howard Lyman, whose appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show sparked a lawsuit, also shows up.

The second section deals with the horrors so-called food animals endure on the factory farm and the efforts of one couple, Gene and Lorri Bauston, to help them. The Baustons started Farm Sanctuary, which has facilities in Watkins Glen, New York, and Orland, California, for the purpose of housing animals who have been rescued from appalling conditions, including the "dead piles" at auctions. Featured throughout this section are photos of animals they've rescued and their stories, some of which are heartbreaking. Perhaps the worst part of it, as Gene Bauston points out, is not one death is necessary because we do not need milk, eggs, or meat to survive.

The third section details the environmental destruction that meat production causes, along with the population explosion. Large companies are allowed to use public rangelands very cheaply--essentially corporate welfare--and they also kill thousands of wild animals who set foot on their property. Intense factory farming also wastes millions of gallons of water every year--what it doesn't pollute, that is.

If you want to do your part to make this world a better place, get this book. Then go vegan.

I had just finished Diet For a New America, by John Robbins before I read Vegan. John Robbins book is very detailed and in-depth while Vegan is a more recent, summarized version of the same issues. If you are short on time and want a concise summary, Vegan is the book for you. If you have more time, I'd advocate John Robbins' book, too.

Even if you have no interest in becoming vegan or vegetarian, it still wouldn't hurt to read this. If you choose to eat meat, you should have all the information that's out there. It also will help you understand any vegetarian friends/acquaintances you have.

Of all the book's i've read about veganism this is no doubt the best. This book covers a lot of information and different topics without being over-bearing like a lot of veg. books can be. Marcus clearly makes his points without deliberate emphisis. Even though this books holds many facts about the effects of 'animals for food', it is not repeditive and boring to read. Marcus does a great job of displaying info without loosing your interest. Allover Great!!

I read Erik Marcus's book, Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating a few months ago, and it's incredible. It's offered in a free web format from Erik's site, ... I originally read it there but have since bought the paperback. It offers so much good information, and made me incredibly happy to be vegan, and reassured me this IS the best decision I've ever made in my life. The first section of the book describes all the heath aspects of veganism, which I really wasn't that interested in previously, but made me glad I chose such a healthy lifestyle, and wanted others to do the same. It continues on through factory farming, ethics, and environmental aspects of veganism. It covers everything on why someone would choose this lifestyle. I highly suggest you all read it; you'll surely enjoy it. --Melissa Rose

Marcus has written a great book here, no doubt. But I have to be a simpleton when it comes to the style. The pages are sort of split with 2 stories going at the same time. It does get to be a distraction. That aside, I would recommend this book for those not easily distracted. Veganism is the best lifestyle. Cheers.

Erik Marcus has done a masterful job of introducing non-vegans to the vegan perspective. Along with John Robbins' The Food Revolution (which I also highly recommend), there is no better book on the subject. After reading both books, I have decided to become a vegan. It's healthy, ecological, and much kinder toward animals. That said, you need only care about one of the above to make the single most important change in your life.

Allow me to begin with some facts:

++ A vegan diet can reduce the risk of heart disease to nearly zero.

++ Vegans have half the chance of getting cancer as meat and dairy eaters.

++ Vegans do not die from Mad Cows disease.

++ The meat industry teats animals so horribly I had to skip over that section in the book.

++ Vegan diets do not harm animals at all.

++ 40,000 children die each day, mostly from starvation or hunger-related disease.

++ The entire world could be fed on a vegan diet; instead we run our grain through cattle and sell it off to the rich.

++ Vegan diets consume much less of the earth's resources: less water, grain, and energy.

++ American rangeland is an ecological moonscape.

Although by not means a rigorously proven scientific fact, it should also be noted that many vegans report increased energy levels, better brain functioning, higher self-esteem, and increased resistance to disease and colds after making the dietary switch. The author asks, "Is it reasonable to assume that the human brain...functions identically no matter how it is nourished? Is it logical that a diet of beef and chicken and ice cream will produce the same thoughts and emotions as a diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains?"

As scientists learn more and more about the nutritional and healing powers of fruits and vegetables, we are gaining a better understanding of the relationship between diet and physical and mental health. In any event, there is a long list of great vegetarians that point toward this relationship: including Leonardo Da Vinci, George Bernard Shaw, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, and so on. Some of the most intelligent and kind-hearted people in the world were vegetarians before the -ism was even born. They intuitively grasped the relationship between a plant-based diet and health, and recognized the need to act compassionatley toward animals.

A very disarming book, the author's writing style is easy-going and matter-of-fact, affecting a clear, earnest, scientific tone. The preface was even written by former rancher/300lb. football player turned vegan, Howard Lyman, who's story will move you. After meeting him, you be introduced to doctors, nutrional biochemist, epidemiologists, and ecologists who have discovered many objective reasons to make a leap of dietary faith. I cannot over-recommend this book. While you are at it, pick up a copy of The Food Revolution. Read them both, and then pass them on.

Just as the cover promises, reading and internalizing this book is the surest way to heal our planet and your body. Two birds, one stone. Give it a shot.

~A global Top 10 Save Self and Planet Book~

This book is an excellant intro to being vegan. It explains the health reasons, moral reasons, and enviromental reasons to switching to a vegan diet. I would have given this book 5 stars, but for one minor problems; 1. It doesn't focus enough on the importance of the eniviromental arguements, which I find the most persussive.

I had just finished Diet For a New America, by John Robbins before I read Vegan. John Robbins book is very detailed and in-depth while Vegan is a more recent, summarized version of the same issues. If you are short on time and want a concise summary, Vegan is the book for you. If you have more time, I'd advocate John Robbins' book, too.

Even if you have no interest in becoming vegan or vegetarian, it still wouldn't hurt to read this. If you choose to eat meat, you should have all the information that's out there. It also will help you understand any vegetarian friends/acquaintances you have.