This is all a very good thing - because as I found out after I finished this book, there is a lot of online dialogue about Tovar Cerulli and his views. Of course! After all, the business of eating - what we should eat, where it comes from, who should be eating it - is one thing that is always guaranteed to set online forums, blogs and social media aflame. This book is about one man who grows up with a family who are hunters and fishers. By the age of twenty however, he is a vegan. He eats this way for many years, marries a lovely wife, and lives happily. Then he begins to question his ethics around food. He begins to see hunting and fishing as an ethical possibility. So, he goes back to eating meat. At the same time he starts hunting and fishing again.
It is an uneasy book, and a brave one. Regardless of what we think of this man's decisions, his heart is on the page. I would urge to not to dismiss it because you feel your opinions are already fixed. In many ways the author is hard on himself, questioning every motivation in his journey, considering every consequence.
The Mindful Carnivore is a book about complacency. We are complacent and therefore complicit in the way that meat, and animal products make it to our tables. As a vegetarian, this book made me reflect, why am I on this path? What am I really supporting when I am drinking milk and eating eggs? I think the author would consider it a compliment to know that this book made me consider becoming vegan once more.
This book was also about what it means to be a man. The author has several significant relationships with male figures in the book - Uncles, friends, his Dad. These men are seen to hunt animals with an ethical perspective. They are seen to hunt in harmony with nature, and to hunt only what they wish to eat. It's a very manly activity, although the author points out that occasionally, hunters are women too.
It was also about the relationship that humans have with guns. In Australia, I don't know anyone with a gun, and I've never seen a real one, except for on the hips of Police. So the concept of taking a gun and killing a creature is pretty weird to me. Maybe this whole concept will read differently in America?
Over Christmas, my brother in law said to me across the table, "You've got those teeth you've got for a reason! You're supposed to eat meat." He smiled in satisfaction and leaned back in this chair. As everyone knows, and this book takes care to consider, it's a lot more complicated than that.
people certainly are passionate about their decisions with regard to food. When I was a vegetarian, it was largely in response to the ways in which 'growing meat' harms the planet. I felt completely differently about hunting deer and raising rabbits and fowl for food. As long as the meat was off the grid, I was okay with it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book review - it looks very interesting and I appreciate your direction to read the book with an open mind and heart.
So many ways to look at the issue. I have to admit feeling biased without reading the book - which probably means I should read it. I still have trouble getting past killing when there are perfectly good plants to eat.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the movie Forks Over Knives? It doesn't deal with killing, just a really persuasive documentary on the health benefits of a plant based diet. It really strengthened my resolve to be vegan.
tovar cerulli described the topics clearly..special thanks for the book review.
ReplyDeletewhat we should eat, where it comes from, who should be eating it- these are the internal thinking..and i justified myself from this.