The Vegetarian Myth

Food, Justice, and Sustainability

By: Lierre Keith

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

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)

20% unwanted politics

The personal stories and research were fantastic! By the end I was desperately tired of the word patriarchy.

A bold work, and a catalog of modern neuroses

I really wanted to like this book. I looked forward to reading it after listening to Lierre's talk on YouTube, and observing how much vegans seem to hate her. But ultimately, it just has a few good excerpts, and I would be too embarrassed to recommend it to anyone I respected.

The book does indeed make some very important points about the nature of various flavors of "organic" and "traditional" agriculture. That's where the value is in her perspective: she overcame her irrational beliefs with regard to veganism and its environmental implications, and she has a lot to contribute in debunking that philosophy. There's also a lot of value in the more general points she makes about traditional agriculture being essentially extractive, like a "mining" of topsoil. This point is repeated 100 times in only the first few chapters, with lots of colorful stories and examples, and driven home very effectively. I think that this is an extremely important point to make, and she makes it clear that we can't go back from modern industrial farming to some sort of "traditional" or "organic" alternative with modern population levels, even if eating only plants was viable health-wise.

The most important criticism I have of this book is that along with its brilliant critique of traditional farming, it contains a doomsday message: that modern industrial farming will make the whole world into a big Easter Island, and that when the oil, natural gas, or whatever runs out, which is implied to be soon, it will collapse. She cites the Haber process for fixing nitrogen and the mining of rocks for phosphorous as examples of why this will happen. But no convincing scientific argument is made for why these should become impossible once fossil fuels run out. There is enough nuclear fuel around to keep us going for a few million years, even if we never invent fusion power. Does she think that humanity is going to just let itself collapse into anarchy and cannibalism rather than face the nuclear bugaboo? It seems like she would, but thankfully she is not in charge.

She also seems to reflexively hate fossil fuels as "polluting", but fails to see that humans are in effect doing what those bacteria she loves so much in the soil do. The oil, coal, or whatever was biomass lost to nature, and in a sense, humans are bringing it back into the circle of life.

I had to stop listening before I even finished Chapter 17. The author has figured out a lot about veganism and the nature of life on a human time-scale, but she has not extended this introspection to her wide array of other neuroses. She references and takes for granted a number of noxious and hateful ideologies casually throughout the book, including the gem of a line which caused me to stop listening: "Women the world over need access to contraception and abortion. But they also need liberty. That liberty will only be won when masculinity, its religion, its economics, its psychology, its sex, is resisted and defeated". Lierre hates men, capitalism, trade, "corporations", science, industry, and on some level I suspect, all people.

Interesting take on sustainability

The author has a very interesting take on agriculture and sustainability. I think her expressed hatred of "masculinity" detracts from the other messages. In all of her assertions about "adult knowledge" and "accepting truths" and "evolutionary truths", she seems to have completely missed that we, too, men and women, are the products of evolution, and like our primate relatives, males tend to be bigger and more aggressive because those are the ones that reproduced the most - evolution in action. Not saying we're slaves to it, but if we don't acknowledge it, we can't effectively develop non-harmful means of expressing it. if we assume that it's all socialization, we'll spend our time 'fixing' the wrong problem.

She also engages in hyperbole (I hope) or ignorance (perhaps) or just plain lying (I hope not). The melting of the polar ice caps might release all that sequestered methane, but there's no current model I'm aware of that has the Earth looking like Venus. She also still seems to think that petroleum is from dinosaurs; yeah, we were taught that, but now we know it's probably not true - why doesn't she? There were quite a few 'facts' of this sort.

That said, when I've researched other claims, I find much important information. For instance, despite the epidemiological studies' claims, when scientists engage in causal studies comparing diets rich in animal fats vs low-fat diets, the low-carb diets usually win. I know weight loss results have been mixed, but health studies (like a recent study that compared low carb vs low fat for treatment of metabolic syndrome) the low-carb diet had profoundly better outcomes.

I was surprised to discover that grains do, indeed, contain opioids, and in quantities sufficient to cause some people to have issues with them specifically. Interesting stuff.

I don't know that I accept her assertion that the only answer is a return to some hunter-gatherer luddite pseudo paradise, but I think she makes good arguments for population control, re-factoring of the "food pyramid", and an effort to approach some form of long-term sustainable living.

Great read but sometimes off topi

Very inspiring, great story telling, caused to qurstion my knowledge about food
, however at times I felt like I was reading a book that about feminism as opposed to food.

You know where the author stands on what to eat

What did you like best about The Vegetarian Myth? What did you like least?

The best thing about this book is the author is clear on what she believes. The least is that it is repetitive, and too sweeping in its generalizations.

What other book might you compare The Vegetarian Myth to and why?

Other non-scientific books on the ethics and health of what you eat.

Have you listened to any of Joyce Bean’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not.

Do you think The Vegetarian Myth needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

This book needs a counter argument since the author not only criticizes vegetarians, but also takes a hammer to agriculture, modern society in general, and the cause of heart problems.

Any additional comments?

The book was written by a former vegan, and she pulls no punches in condemning the practice on health and practical terms. She recognizes the sincere intent of vegans, just thinks them misguided and ill informed. But if you read the whole book, her attack does not stop with vegans.

Too Much About "Her" and Too Much Anger!

The Author, Lierre Keith, share her personal experience of being a vegan for over 20 years of her adult life and how it brought havoc upon her personal health and made her life so miserable. She does offer up some good points and information (which I enjoyed learning about!), but she's ready to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" in this book because the vegan lifestyle didn't work for her and she's bitter and has become an alarmist about it.

I myself, have been a vegetarian for over 25 years (of course, my vegan friends don't think that's good enough!) and was a top flight athlete, and continue to train and exercise everyday, along with a sensible vegetarian diet (a moderation of animal products, but no animal meats) and lifestyle, and that all works for me. Vegetarianism has worked tremendously well for me, but I am not extreme about it by any means.

The Vegetarian Myth, as the author writes about, is (in a nutshell) that too many people become vegetarians/vegans in hopes of saving the animals from exploitation, saving the environment, for their health reasons, and a variety of other things. Being vegetarian/vegan in itself isn't going to accomplish those things, but it can perhaps help in that direction.

The author obviously is upset that the vegan lifestyle didn't work for her and that she suffered and was miserable for 20 years and her health suffered. She also points out several times about how women are being exploited around the world, and while that's true, it seems to be a little out of context for this book.

My personal take is "all things in moderation", and if you're going to do something to an extreme, then you'd better really know what you're doing (it may just not be for you) and monitor yourself every step of the way. Good sensible diets, exercise and your own personal philosophy on life, plus "being the best you can be" is probably "just the ticket!".

A very well researched perspective that is vital to understand

I recommend this book to anybody who wants to learn how to create a truly sustainable paradigm on this earth. I was a vegan, and I ate my first meal of grass fed beef today. Not simply because I realize it is healthier for my body, but because I realize it is healthier for this planet. Both industrial agriculture and industrial animal agriculture must stop. Not eating meat only eliminates one of these problems, allowing monocrop's to take over the world and destroy its topsoil.

Stop buying soy and industrially produced grains, if you don't, you are simply contributing to the bottom lines of the most abusive corporations on the planet, because they are the largest share holders in many organic and vegan food companies.

Read this book!

Eye opening.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Vegetarian Myth to be better than the print version?

I havent read the print version so cant compare.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the amount of factual information and statistics that made the arguments strong.

Which scene was your favorite?

The beginning was good when she talks about the vegan who suggests a fence through the serengeti separating the herbivores from the carnivores.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Agriculture: A matter of life and death.

Any additional comments?

The author should write another book. "The Feminist Myth" The only thing I did not like about this book was her down-putting of masculinity as a whole. I completely agree in human rights and that the world is not where it should be as far as equality between the sexes, but I am a man. That is a cultural problem, not testosterone.

Connection of many real problems

Lierre Keith connects Permaculture, real gardening, soil food web, locavorism, Weston A. Price research, hunter gatherer culture, big pharma, the so called food industry, oil companies, the health industry and the dogmatic religions and beliefs full of homocentric stupidity and relates it all by unwrapping all lies and all truths little by little.

Terrible Book

Would you try another book from Lierre Keith and/or Joyce Bean?

NEVER

Has The Vegetarian Myth turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Joyce Bean?

It was ok

Any additional comments?

The author sounded like she was deranged. I felt like she was coming from a place of anger and aggression. I became more skeptical as I listened to the book like this was the musing of a person trying to get back at a group of people.

Vegetarians and Vegans are not to blame for her ill suffering. she minimizes the devastation the consumption of meat has on society and blames the ills of the food world on the growing of crops and farming.

Overall very skewed, this book is unbalanced. The author is trying to make a point by hitting you over the head with it instead of a more scientific evidence.

I have never written a review but felt compelled to write this one. There really are better books if one wants to stop being vegetarian or justify the reasons to eat meat.

needs a sequel called "the feminism myth"

this book is very important, the scope of its subject is phenomenal, a proper eye opener regarding our food, how we produce it, our society and everything that is wrong about it. I have learned a lot and i recommend it to everyone around me.

however, the author is a recovering vegan feminist, and while she made the backbone of her reflexion about all the things that are wrong with veganism, she hasn't managed to apply the same principles of scientifique enquiry and intellectual honesty to feminism.

Apparently, all the terrible things she pointed out throughout the book are the result of the patriarcal society and toxic masculinity. its actually strange that, having done all the work to see the fallacy of vegan fanatism, she can't go that extra step and realise that she is again clinging to simple solutions to complexe problems, finding a convenient culprit to blame. at no point does she even consider that the human social structure might also be rooted in a 3 million years evolutionary journey...

title is deceiving

This book is only tangentially about the merits or otherwise of a vegetarian diet from a health perspective. It's more concerned with feminism and the ethics behind farming practices. That still might be interesting, but unfortunately it’s not really a very deep analysis.

Interesting, but....

There are some very good points raised in the book and certainly has made me think a lot more about the implications of the increased use of crop growing. I would recommend independently researching some of scientific claims in this book as they either don't stand up or she has cherry picked those that support her opinion.

not vagan any more after this book after 4 years

i was brought this book by a local dairy farmer which i had a massive arrangement with he said we shut his dairy farm if read this book and still want to be a vegan. after reading it I sheepishly had to admite he was right
I have given up vegan diet now and my health has improved massively. i have been to thank the farmer for save my life.

Mind Blowing

The content and message within this book absolutely blew my mind. So insightful and makes a ton of sense. It did lose me when the author strayed away from the topic of vegetarianism to talk about feminism but it was still well worth a read. The content is mostly referring to American farming and diets so not universally applicable to other western societies but it gets there eventually.
The narrator was not the best especially when using Americanisms for words rather than the traditional English.

Eye opening

Excellent book detailing the truths behind destructive vegetarian and vegan choices, political naritives and farming methods. A little of topic at times with some left wing agendas but more the most and excellent and enlightening read.

excellent

I have been a vegan /vegetarian for a period of 35 years. I have hashimoto disease premature menopause osteoporosis and depression now for 10 years , this book explains how my diet has destroyed my health . it also explains how my good intentions are helping to destroy the planet .
Thank you I am now on the long journey to hopefully regaining my health and maybe I will get some energy back to live life proper

Grating audio

Having heard some book review interviews I was compelled to read more about the background and detail. Sadly something in the delivery made it so dull and at times difficult to listen to for any length of time.

back to reality

most was very informative but there were too many broad generalisations, especially about Male Domination I think were not relevant I tried WFPB for s while but do not think it is right or adequate.

Food for thought

Powerful and challenging and written from the heart. Everyone should read this. Many will disagree but her arguments merit study. It was clearly painful for her to write this but she writes well and she has much to teach those with an open mind.