• The Vegetarian Myth

  • Food, Justice, and Sustainability
  • By: Lierre Keith
  • Narrated by: Joyce Bean
  • Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (627 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Vegetarian Myth  By  cover art

The Vegetarian Myth

By: Lierre Keith
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.00

Buy for $25.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

We’ve been told that a vegetarian diet can feed the hungry, honor the animals, and save the planet. Lierre Keith believed in that plant-based diet and spent twenty years as a vegan. But in The Vegetarian Myth, she argues that we’ve been led astray - not by our longings for a just and sustainable world, but by our ignorance.

The truth is that agriculture is a relentless assault against the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. In service to annual grains, humans have devastated prairies and forests, driven countless species extinct, altered the climate, and destroyed the topsoil - the basis of life itself. Keith argues that if we are to save this planet, our food must be an act of profound and abiding repair: it must come from inside living communities, not be imposed across them. Part memoir, part nutritional primer, and part political manifesto, The Vegetarian Myth will challenge everything you thought you knew about food politics.

©2009 Lierre Keith (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Lierre Keith’s book is beyond fantastic." (Dr. Michael Eades, author of Protein Power)
"This book saved my life. Not only does The Vegetarian Myth make clear how we should be eating, but also how the dominant food system is killing the planet. This necessary book challenges many of the destructive myths we live by and offers us a way back into our bodies, and back into the fight to save the planet." (Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame and A Language Older Than Words
"Everyone interested in healthy eating should be grateful to Lierre Keith." (Sally Fallon Morell, President, The Weston A. Price Foundation)

More from the same

What listeners say about The Vegetarian Myth

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    331
  • 4 Stars
    132
  • 3 Stars
    72
  • 2 Stars
    44
  • 1 Stars
    48
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    331
  • 4 Stars
    119
  • 3 Stars
    62
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    24
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    289
  • 4 Stars
    110
  • 3 Stars
    70
  • 2 Stars
    26
  • 1 Stars
    52

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

“ToXiC mAsCuLiNiTy”

It was half way decent until she blamed all the issues in the world on men and toxic masculinity. Recovering liberal who’s mind is still not there yet….

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I got 2 minutes in

As someone who follows a whole food plant based diet, I got about 2 minutes in. As soon as the author called a vegan diet “extreme” I tuned out and turned it off. Vegetarian and vegan diets are no longer extreme. Will they save the planet and society? Maybe maybe not. But done right are they a healthy alternative to the standard American diet? Sure. I don’t know that McDonald’s is any less extreme than my sweet potatoes and black beans for breakfast.

I get the premise and I love my farmers market as much as the next woke Karen running around post industrial New England. But I don’t like anything that calls my abstention from meat the majority of the time extreme. Thanks but no.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Mostly awful politics with a few topical insights

Personal examples and facts about the health issues were very interesting. Sure got sick of hearing that the patriarchy is evil, agriculture is murdering the planet, and nobody should ever have kids if they care about the planet. Few useful insights, but could have been summed up in an hour if they took out all the negativity Eeyore attitude ;(

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Could have done without all the male bashing.

A lot of the information about actual vegetarianism, agricultural and ecology was interesting. But Lierre seems unable to keep her hate for men under wraps. Assertions that only enslavement of women, not men, was a bad thing. Rape is an activity of “ordinary men”. Patriarchy is destroying the world and it will never be saved without the eradication of masculinity and religion. And men should all have vasectomies. Those are a just a few points she puts forth that made it hard to give this book a higher rating. Maybe one day Lierre will write the “Feminist Myth,” when she realizes not all men are evil and not all women are oppressed saints.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too social justice-y

I wanted to like this book so bad. I can only take so many virtue signaling buzz words until I tune out completely and this book has them in spades. I agree with the premise of the book wholeheartedly, but for god’s sake lay off the uber progressive kool aid.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

An ideological bent of otherwise useful information

Despite the useful information this book contains about agriculture, topsoil, and dietary effects of a vegetarian diet, it does not deserve more than one star.

The author is a radical feminist and, while criticizing vegans for being trapped by ideology, she bends every single fact to her own. She explains how agriculture damages the environment and cites studies that show how it causes many modern illnesses, interspersing it with rants against "the patriarchy", misogyny, racism, colonialism, and all the meaningless buzzwords you would expect from a radical feminist.

The book ends with the typical conclusions of an anti-human ideology. We are parasites on this planet, driven by the toxicity of masculinity. The only solution is to follow "femininity, justice, and democracy", which, as the author explains, means stopping all agriculture and civilization, reducing the human population by 90% and going back to hunting animals in prairies.

It's a pity because the book offers some useful information and food for thought (no pun intended). But the constant ideological bent and the presentation of slogans as facts makes one doubt every other factual statement made by the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A love/hate relationship with this book!

Would you listen to The Vegetarian Myth again? Why?

Probably! I've read it once, then listen it a second time. There is a lot of great information and the author presents some angles I've never thought about before.

What does Joyce Bean bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It just feels like she wrote the book herself! SHe could have fooled me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Are you crazy! This is way too dense! You need to listen to it bit by bit and process it between sittings.

Any additional comments?

The bias of the author obvious and said from the beginning. If most of the information is good, it makes you wonder about some of the conclusions the author comes to with the actual evidence. It always feels like she is trying to convince you instead of just lying down the facts. So great book, but make sure your critical thinking switch is on at all time, doubt everything the author says and double check the evidence before making up your mind or talking about it with other people!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This was very real and educational.

This was straight forward and full of so much information. I would definitely suggest it to people to listen to or read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

She’s too intense

I’m a vegetarian … she is too intense for me. Kind of boring and slow. Glad she came around … couldn’t finish

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great book

The reviews trashing this book are of people who either hate women or hate meat. Lierre Keith is a maverick and a whistleblower!! Read this book, especially if you’re vegan or thinking about going vegan.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!