summer veggie reading, part 2

A book that got even deeper under my skin was MAD COWBOY: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat by Howard F. Lyman and Glen Merzer. Howard Lyman was a fourth-generation cattle rancher, who took over his family's farm in the 1970s when the scope of ranching and farming was changing with the introduction of chemicals, hormones, and feedlots. The book is full of first-person accounts and facts of where our beef comes from, and it's very disturbing and powerful. Lyman's own deteriorating health led him to question the cattle-for-food industry, and ultimately leave that world behind. He's a full fledged vegetarian. Lyman was on the Oprah show in the late 90's where she questioned the beef industry's practices when Mad Cow Disease was on the rise. The book covers not just the beef industry but also the dairy industry.


When you look at a meat-eating diet from the perspective of 1. killing other living beings for food and 2. prior to killing the animals, pumping them full of chemicals and hormones to speed their growth and kill the diseases they get from being penned in unhealthy environments, which remains in the cellular makeup of the food, well, those are pretty compelling arguments for avoiding the beef altogether.


Last summer, I read Skinny Bitch, which i felt was more sensationalist, and it was the first-person account of a "Mad Cowboy" that really made the most powerful argument for going fully veggie.

summer veggie reading, part one

first, i read Yoga and Vegetarianism: The Path to Greater Health and Happiness, by Sharon Gannon, the founder of the Jivamukti style of yoga. In addition to developing Jivamukti yoga, Ms. Gannon is also an animal-rights activist. She presents many impassioned arguments for vegetarianism, many based on the yogic practice of ahimsa, non-harming, but the quote that resonated the most with me also encapsulates santosha, or contentment:

"Yoga teaches us that we can have whatever we want in life if we are willing to provide it for others first. In fact, whatever we are experiencing in our lives is a direct result of how we have treated others in the past. The way we treat others will determine how others treat us. After all, they are only acting as agents of our own karmas. How others treat us will influence how we see ourselves. How we see ourselves will greatly determine who we are, and who we are will be revealed in our actions."