From John Robbins, a new edition of the classic that awakened the
conscience of a nation. Since the 1987 publication of Diet for a New
America, beef consumption in the United States has fallen a remarkable
19%. While many forces are contributing to this dramatic shift in our
habits, Diet for a New America is considered to be one of the most
important. Diet for a New America is a startling examination of the food
we currently buy and eat in the United States, and the astounding moral,
economic, and emotional price we pay for it.
In Section I, John Robbins takes an extraordinary look at our dependence
on animals for food and the inhumane conditions under which these
animals are raised. It becomes clear that the price we pay for our
eating habits is measured in the suffering of animals, a suffering so
extreme and needless that it disrupts our very place in the web of life.
Section II challenges the belief that consuming meat is a requirement
for health by pointing our the vastly increased rate of disease caused
by pesticides, hormones, additives, and other chemicals now a routine
part of our food production. The author shows us that the high health
risk is unnecessary, and that the production, preparation, and
consumption of food can once again be a healthy process.
In Section III, Robbins looks at the global implications of a meat-based
diet and concludes that the consumption of the resources necessary to
produce meat is a major factor in our ecological crisis.
Diet for a New America is the single most eloquent argument for a
vegetarian lifestyle ever published. Eloquently, evocatively, and
entertainingly written, it is a cant put down book guaranteed to amaze,
infuriate, but ultimately educate and empower the reader. A pivotal book
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 1987.
