A slew of pro-meat books have entered the market. These books aim to tell meat-eaters to keep eating meat instead of encouraging people to go vegan. These books are really just pro-meat propaganda.

Here are pieces from a Washington Post article about these books along with some analysis from me:

“Each book has its own tack and tone, but the essential message is the same: Carnivores should not feel guilty. Nor should they cede the moral high ground to vegetarians and vegans, whose answer to the complex questions raised by eating animals is to abstain entirely. Instead, the authors argue, carnivores should celebrate their decision to eat meat by being conscientious about what they choose.”

Translation: Meat eaters should celebrate their decision to kill animals. They should make this unnecessary, cruel event more fun. Also, be conscientious about who you choose to kill and eat. Do you want to eat a shy mother of four or a young, adventurous baby? Do you want to eat Babe or Bambi? Oh, it’s all so much fun to partake in another’s suffering and death. So, don’t feel guilty about killing and eating a sentient being. Guilt ruins the fun.

“People are worried, but they still want to eat meat,” says Roger Horowitz, author of “Putting Meat on the American Table” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), which charts historical patterns of meat consumption. “So there’s a great market opportunity for people to talk about what really happens when you eat meat and tell people that it’s okay.”

Translation: All these new books that tell people it’s OK to eat meat are just tapping into a growing trend of delusional meat-eaters. People want to eat meat. But they don’t want to feel guilty about it. So they will buy books that tell them it’s OK to eat meat, even if those books are flat out lies.

It’s called marketing people. And the pro-meat people are pretty good at it. Besides, they have so much money and power. But luckily for us vegans, we have truth on our side. And luckily, the market for pro-vegan books is growing right now, too.

Catherine Friend, author of The Compassionate Carnivore, was interviewed:

Friend is careful not to offer a strict definition of compassion: “I’m leery of the word ’should.’ To make a change that will last, people need to take steps they are comfortable with,” she says. But she does offer guidelines. Like Gold, she advocates eating less meat and making sure it’s humanely raised. And if you can’t avoid factory-farmed meat, she says, go meatless.

Translation: Ms. Friend is not going to tell you that you shouldn’t steal, murder, rape, lie, molest or otherwise do terrible things. She doesn’t like the word “should” and she wants to make sure you’re “comfortable.” So, if you’re a child molester, Friend would encourage you to take only the actions that you’re most comfortable with taking. She’s basically saying something like, ‘If you can’t avoid molesting children under 7, stop molesting children. But if you can find some older kids to molest, go for it.’

Also, do you notice the bit of classism there? Friend thinks that only rich people can be “compassionate carnivores.” Poor people who can’t afford organic, sustainable, ‘free-range,’ less tortured dead animal flesh shouldn’t buy it at all. She doesn’t contemplate how the class divide between who can and who can’t afford dead animal flesh sustains factory farms because poor people like the taste of meat just as much as rich people. And once it’s on the plate, no one knows where the flesh came from?

Chipotle can say whatever they want in their advertising, but that doesn’t mean people who buy steak burritos can eat them with a clear conscious. Eating meat is wrong, plain and simple.

Activism! If you see these books at bookstores, place pro-vegan books on top or near these books:

• “The Compassionate Carnivore: Or How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald’s Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat,” by Catherine Friend
• “The Shameless Carnivore: A Manifesto for Meat Lovers,” by Scott Gold
• “Meat: A Love Story” by Susan Bourette

Here are some pro-vegan books:

• Skinny Bitch
• Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating
• Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money
• Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights
• Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry

I’m sure you can think of other forms of activism, too. Whatever you do, keep it non-violent and FUN!

(first draft posted at ElaineVigneault.com)

Sections: Vegan Activism, Vegan Et Cetera
Topics: activism, books, veg, Vegan