High Steaks
Why and How to Eat Less Meat
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, THERE’S NOTHING WRONG with raising livestock – in small numbers. For health, there’s nothing wrong with eating meat – in small amounts.
Yet human beings have lost control in their appetite for chicken, beef and pork, and have galloped from meat-as-an-occasional-treat, to meat as the centre of most meals. Neither the planet, nor our bodies, can take it any more.
My book High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat (New Society Press, 2012), outlines the ecological and health downsides of too many livestock and too much meat — and demonstrates that there’s much we can do. As consumers, we can eat less meat. As societies we can insist on more sustainable and compassionate ways of raising cattle, chickens, pigs and goats.
Timely and compelling, the book offers a modest, commonsense approach to a serious problem, laying out strategies for all of us to cut back on our consumption of animal products and ensure that our meat is produced in sustainable, ecologically responsible ways. At the same time, High Steaks describes progressive food policy shifts to discourage factory farming and encourage people to eat in ways that support ecosystems and personal health.
Where to get High Steaks
Contact me here for copies of this book and organizational and book-club discounts. Amazon’s peek-inside is available here. There are used copies on Amazon.ca and audio copies on Amazon.ca and Barnes & Noble.
Praise for High Steaks
A vital book for all concerned about the perilous state of our planet
“Although all life is exquisitely interconnected by air, water and soil, we have shattered that world through the way we perceive it in bits and pieces, so we fail to recognize that our lifestyle has repercussions that reverberate through the biosphere. Industrial agriculture creates food by converting the energy in oil rather than directly from sunlight into plants. Eleanor Boyle’s timely book, High Steaks, reconnects our freagmented view to reveal the ecological, social, health and economic costs of a diet rich in meat. This is a vital book for all concerned about the p[eriolous state of our planet and anxious for ways to live that are healthy for ourselves and the biosphere.”
— David Suzuki, scientist, environmentalist and author
Realistic, attractive, and compelling options
This is a very important book—it addresses a key component of our climate troubles, and it does it by addressing people where they actually are, and offering some realistic, attractive, and compelling options for changing deep-rooted habits.
— Bill McKibben, author: Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
A better course can and is being charted
The list of mainstream meat production’s negative impacts is long: health, climate change, land use, feedstock, water, pharmaceutical misuse, biodiversity. A better course can and is being charted. This must engage all of us.
— Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, City University London
Our individual health and the sustainability of our society depend on rejecting industrial agriculture
In some future century, humanity will either become comfortable with eating meat or will quit eating meat. For now, as Eleanor Boyle explains in her well-researched and well-written book, our individual health and the sustainability of our society depend on rejecting industrial agriculture, which includes eating less meat. Boyle gives us dozens of good reasons to eat more responsibly and sustainably.—
— John Ikerd, Author, Speaker, and Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia
This isn’t another doom and gloom book. … shows how we can all be part of the solution
For years we have been encouraged to eat more meat than what is good for us and the planet. Eleanor Boyle presents reasonable and compelling arguments for moving meat from the center of our plates to the side. Whether you care about your family’s health, our environment, how farm animals are treated or all of the above, this book is an essential read. This isn’t another doom and gloom book. Instead it shows how we can all be part of the solution and achieve a more humane and sustainable food system. After reading Eleanor Boyle’s book, it is hard to imagine who wouldn’t support a food system that is healthier for society, gentler on the planet and kinder to animals. She presents reasonable and compelling evidence to demonstrate that our current meat consumption levels are not sustainable as well as recipes for change. By changing our food policies and a few meals a week, we can all be part of the solution and improve our health, the environment and animal welfare.
— Melissa Matlow, Campaigns Manager, Humane and Sustainable Agriculture, World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)—Canada
Thorough, encompassing, and refreshingly balanced analysis
A thorough, encompassing, and refreshingly balanced analysis of what it means to eat meat. The author provides compelling evidence that meat, and specifically that which evolves from high density confinement feeding systems, affects the health and welfare of people, communities, livestock and the broader environment. Rigorous citation of recent refereed literature makes this a must-read text for those seeking the latest, scientific understanding of many contentious issues. Articulate, comfortable, and readable prose ensures that the critical content of this book is accessible to a wide range of readers.
— E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor (retired), Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph