Meat: A Benign Extravagance is an exploration of the difficult environmental, ethical and health issues surrounding the human consumption of animal flesh. It lays out in detail the reasons why we must decrease the amount of meat we eat, both for the planet and for ourselves and explores how different forms of agriculture shape our landscape and culture. At the heart of this book, Simon Fairlie argues that society needs to reorientate itself back to the land, both physically and spiritually and explains why an agriculture that can most readily achieve this is one that includes a measure of livestock farming. Simon is an authoritative author writing about one of the key food and farming issues of the moment. This book demands the interest of the public and media alike and is a major contribution to a debate that is sure to run and run.
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Meat, animals and dairy have been in the firing line for so long that in some circles, the assumption is taken for granted that there is no case, ever, anywhere, to be made for the role of animals in farming, landcare or diet. This book by Simon Fairlie is a wonderful and challenging correction. As a former Welsh Black breeder who farmed upland wet English hills but who gave up meat years ago (but takes dairy produce), I found this book a riveting read. As an academic who grapples with what land is for and what a sustainable diet might be, I assure you that this book is essential reading. Fairlie's beautifully written, practical yet erudite book covers the terrain that policy-makers now realise needs to be addressed. Fairlie makes the case for not throwing the baby out with the bath water or should that be don't demonise the animal before you know its function and value? --Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, City University London
No-one has ever analysed the world's food and agriculture more astutely than Simon Fairlie - an original thinker and a true scholar. Here he shows that while meat is generally a luxury it is often the best option, and could always be turned to advantage if only we did things properly; but this, with present economic policies and legal restrictions, is becoming less and less possible. Everyone should read this book especially governments, and all campaigners. --Colin Tudge, Biologist and author
This book is a masterpiece: original, challenging and brilliantly argued. Simon Fairlie is a great thinker and a great writer. --George Monbiot, Environmental and political activist, author and journalist
No-one has ever analysed the world's food and agriculture more astutely than Simon Fairlie - an original thinker and a true scholar. Here he shows that while meat is generally a luxury it is often the best option, and could always be turned to advantage if only we did things properly; but this, with present economic policies and legal restrictions, is becoming less and less possible. Everyone should read this book especially governments, and all campaigners. --Colin Tudge, Biologist and author
This book is a masterpiece: original, challenging and brilliantly argued. Simon Fairlie is a great thinker and a great writer. --George Monbiot, Environmental and political activist, author and journalist
No-one has ever analysed the world's food and agriculture more astutely than Simon Fairlie - an original thinker and a true scholar. Here he shows that while meat is generally a luxury it is often the best option, and could always be turned to advantage if only we did things properly; but this, with present economic policies and legal restrictions, is becoming less and less possible. Everyone should read this book especially governments, and all campaigners. --Colin Tudge, Biologist and author
This book is a masterpiece: original, challenging and brilliantly argued. Simon Fairlie is a great thinker and a great writer. --George Monbiot, Environmental and political activist, author and journalist
No-one has ever analysed the world's food and agriculture more astutely than Simon Fairlie - an original thinker and a true scholar. Here he shows that while meat is generally a luxury it is often the best option, and could always be turned to advantage if only we did things properly; but this, with present economic policies and legal restrictions, is becoming less and less possible. Everyone should read this book especially governments, and all campaigners. --Colin Tudge, Biologist and author
This book is a masterpiece: original, challenging and brilliantly argued. Simon Fairlie is a great thinker and a great writer. --George Monbiot, Environmental and political activist, author and journalist
About the Author
Simon Fairlie worked for 20 years variously as an agricultural labourer, vine-worker, shepherd, fisherman, builder and stonemason before being ensnared by the computer in 1990. Simon was co-editor of The Ecologist magazine for four years, before joining a community farm in 1994 where he managed the cows, pigs and a working horse for ten years. He now runs Chapter 7, an organisation that provides planning advice to smallholders and other low income people in the countryside. Simon is also editor of The Land magazine, and earns a living by selling scythes. He is the author of Low Impact Development: Planning and People in a Sustainable Countryside.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Being a vegan or vegetarian is a perfectly reasonable position for those with a religious objection to meat eating or those who believe that killing animals is morally wrong. In recent years a growing number of people have gone further and declared that eating meat is bad environmentally. Before reading this book I often pondered on what would happen if animals ceased to be farmed for food and skins in Britain. No cattle grazing the lush, lowland pastures and no sheep on our hills. Instead we might see massive fields of grain grown in a monoculture and the uplands left bleak and non productive. What I never questioned were the statistics that appeared to prove that meat was a wasteful use of land.
In masterful fashion the author demolishes the, often accepted, figures on water consumption and methane production of food animals. In a scholarly, but readable, work he provides a counter argument with sources cited for those who wish to study this subject more deeply. He argues that meat production is essential to provide a balanced farming economy and that the real problem is over consumption of meat and the farming methods employed to deliver this abundance.
A thought provoking work written by a man who has deep knowledge of the countryside and farming. This book provides us with a sustainable, alternative future where meat is an important part of out diet but is eaten in smaller quantities and is treated as an indulgence, as our not so distant forebears considered it.
In masterful fashion the author demolishes the, often accepted, figures on water consumption and methane production of food animals. In a scholarly, but readable, work he provides a counter argument with sources cited for those who wish to study this subject more deeply. He argues that meat production is essential to provide a balanced farming economy and that the real problem is over consumption of meat and the farming methods employed to deliver this abundance.
A thought provoking work written by a man who has deep knowledge of the countryside and farming. This book provides us with a sustainable, alternative future where meat is an important part of out diet but is eaten in smaller quantities and is treated as an indulgence, as our not so distant forebears considered it.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By Chris Adams
Format:Paperback
This is an inspirational book full of wonders.
Simon Fairlie has taken the time, patience and intellectual effort to research his subject in depth: that much of this was done through his local library is even more impressive. His analysis of the role of animals in food production strategies is quantitative, and closely argued. But he also brings in an engagingly human perspective on our relationship with animals, both domesticated and wild, based on his long, varied and direct experience, and insists that nurturing this relationship is essential for the future. He shows clearly how public debate and policy formation are so easily influenced by "facts" which are just plain wrong, and sometimes mischievously so.
For this reveiwer the book is also notable for three reasons.
First, it is the most balanced treatise I have read on land use, which is the invisible elephant in the room as far as most discussions of sustainability are concerned. It's a shame it's limited to agriculture, because the sourcing of energy and materials will also impact land use in the next few decades. Apart from nuclear power, all the alternative energy technologies are land hungry.
Second, its skilful dissection of the vegan position, revealing its fear of engaging with the realities of nature,is timely. Even Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, has come out in favour of packing humans into cities (for the creativity, it seems)and surrounding them with regions reserved for agriculture and regions of "wilderness". I find this anti-human "industrial vegan" vision of the future almost too appalling to comtemplate.
Third, the permaculture approaches he writes about so lovingly derive from ideas I encountered in the late 60s and early 70s and which still resonate. "Self Sufficiency", "Small is Beautiful", "Diet for a Small Planet": all must have been seeds for his approach to life. How can one not admire a writer on sustainability who describes the poor outcome of his experiments in composting his own faeces? (Ok, I admit I tried as well, in 1974) These ideas need to be nourished if humans are to win the battle against the corporations.
To close: the book is impressive both for its sources and its sustained arguments, but also for the spicy titbits of information and stories that pepper it. Truly wonderful.
Simon Fairlie has taken the time, patience and intellectual effort to research his subject in depth: that much of this was done through his local library is even more impressive. His analysis of the role of animals in food production strategies is quantitative, and closely argued. But he also brings in an engagingly human perspective on our relationship with animals, both domesticated and wild, based on his long, varied and direct experience, and insists that nurturing this relationship is essential for the future. He shows clearly how public debate and policy formation are so easily influenced by "facts" which are just plain wrong, and sometimes mischievously so.
For this reveiwer the book is also notable for three reasons.
First, it is the most balanced treatise I have read on land use, which is the invisible elephant in the room as far as most discussions of sustainability are concerned. It's a shame it's limited to agriculture, because the sourcing of energy and materials will also impact land use in the next few decades. Apart from nuclear power, all the alternative energy technologies are land hungry.
Second, its skilful dissection of the vegan position, revealing its fear of engaging with the realities of nature,is timely. Even Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, has come out in favour of packing humans into cities (for the creativity, it seems)and surrounding them with regions reserved for agriculture and regions of "wilderness". I find this anti-human "industrial vegan" vision of the future almost too appalling to comtemplate.
Third, the permaculture approaches he writes about so lovingly derive from ideas I encountered in the late 60s and early 70s and which still resonate. "Self Sufficiency", "Small is Beautiful", "Diet for a Small Planet": all must have been seeds for his approach to life. How can one not admire a writer on sustainability who describes the poor outcome of his experiments in composting his own faeces? (Ok, I admit I tried as well, in 1974) These ideas need to be nourished if humans are to win the battle against the corporations.
To close: the book is impressive both for its sources and its sustained arguments, but also for the spicy titbits of information and stories that pepper it. Truly wonderful.
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By Keith P
Format:Paperback
A superbly researched book about the economics and environmental impact of meat production and consumption. The knee-jerk "crops good, meat bad" mantra so often spouted by green groups that haven't examined all sides of the issue, is exploded by this book.
All the references are cited and can be checked. A must read for everyone concerned with food and our environment.
All the references are cited and can be checked. A must read for everyone concerned with food and our environment.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
A lot of research but misses the point
As a permaculturalist and cattle grazer I looked forward to reading this book but have to say I was disappointed. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Evan Young
5.0 out of 5 stars
a joy to read
absolutely loved reading this book, it was a joy to read something where someone looked at the facts first before just choosing whatever to support and opinion they had already. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Nicky
5.0 out of 5 stars
Game-changing book
Like many people concerned with the difficulty of feeding the world and keeping GHG emissions down, I assumed that meat was all bad and, being a carnivore, ate it with a vague... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Patrick - - -
5.0 out of 5 stars
300 pages of anti-waffle
This is the first time I have ever given a book five stars, and I am full of admiration for Simon Fairlie's hard work and powers of logical thought ; he also writes very well and... Read more
Published on 14 April 2011 by A Carless
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