The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat | 
 enlarge | Author: Catherine Friend
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 135491
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Da Capo Press Ed
Pages: 291
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 1600940072
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.36
EAN: 9781600940071
ASIN: 1600940072
Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New - Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts.
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Product Description
For most of her life, Catherine Friend was a carnivore who preferred not to consider where the meat on her plate came from--beef didn't have a face, chicken didn't have a personality, and pork certainly shouldn't have feelings. But Friend's attitude began to change after she and her partner bought a farm and began raising sheep for meat. Friend's ensuing odyssey through the world of livestock and farming is a journey that offers critical insights--for omnivores and herbivores alike--into how our meat is raised, how we buy it and from whom, and why change is desirable and possible. From a distressing lesson about her favorite Minnesota State Fair food (pork-chop-on-a-stick) to the surprising gratitude that came from eating an animal she'd raised and loved, Friend takes us on a wild and woolly ride through her small farm (with several brief detours into life on factory farms), along the way raising questions such as: What are the differences between factory, conventional, sustainable, and organic farms, and more importantly, why do we need to understand those differences? What do all those labels--from organic to local to grass fed and pasture raised--really mean? If you're buying from a small farmer, what are the key questions to ask? How do you find that small farmer, and what's the best way to help her help you? In the same witty and warm style that characterized her memoir Hit by a Farm, Friend uses her perspective as a sustainable farmer and carnivore to consider meat animals' quality of life--while still supporting the choice to eat meat. Regardless of whether you eat meat once a day, once a week, or once a year, your perspective of what goes on your plate--and in your mouth--will never be the same.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 the compassionate human November 3, 2008
Brandon Webb
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
why not just. not buy the book.
and not eat animals?
i think that sounds like a good idea.
and much more compassionate.
As Leo Tolstoy once wrote:
"I sit on a man's back, choking him, and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by any means possible, except getting off his back."
 Highly recommend "The Compassionate Carnivore" October 20, 2008
Kathleen C. Ross (Oberlin, OH)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book! While I'm not much of a meat eater, the title caught my eye and am I ever glad. Not only did I have the opportunity to become more educated about sustainability and humane animal treatment, but found a new author to recommend. Catherine Friend is such a great storyteller - one of those gifted people who can write a book that you just don't want to put down.
Her research is thorough but certainly not daunting nor overwhelmingly statistical. Rather, she imparts the disturbing facts of just how most of the food we eat is raised, (mis)handled and eventually ends up in our supermarkets or restaurants. These are facts that so many of us tend to ignore, but really cannot continue to do so. For the good of the earth, our health and well-being, we must become more conscious of one of our most basic and necessary functions: choosing wisely what we eat.
Friend educates the reader about those choices, but, as any good educator, she does it with humor. This is a book that will make you laugh out loud and yet the impact of her message will be with you long after the final chapter.
GREAT Book! October 13, 2008
M. Brewer (Austin, TX)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have chosen a vegetarian lifestyle about two years ago as I researched on my own "factory farms". I find myself defending my choice on numerous occasions to friends and family which has lead me to believe people are quite naive when it comes to food. So what do these people need? Education. Catherine Friend takes exactly that approach in the Compassionate Carnivore. Friend speaks to people who currently eat meat and don't plan on stopping. Friend writes on what it's like inside a factory farm and how a person who chooses to eat meat can choose more wisely by researching where their meat comes from. I am constantly recommending this book to others so they can be more educated on what they are putting into their bodies.
A must read for all carnivores October 7, 2008
Michael D. Dudek (Rural Illinois)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a great book! Refreshing, enlightening, entertaining! If only we could get the megafarmers to convert to this line of thinking, what a different world this would be. My hope is that as more people read this book, a movement will be created (and in fact it has already started!) and this change will take deep root in our agricultural practices.
My wife and I, along w/ our 5 kids, moved out of the city a couple years ago and bought a small hobby farm and decided to live a life like that described in this book - and it has made ALL THE DIFFERENCE! We know where our food comes from since we've raised it, we know the animals have been well cared for and treated with great dignity, we know they've been allowed to roam through our pastures and eat grass the way God intended. We've loved them and cared for them from birth through death.
And when their earthly life is over, they provide nurturing sustanance for our large family for many, many months.
In my community, surrounded by large megafarms, I'm only one of a couple such farmers who are living a life that is described by this great book. Perhaps I'll buy a few more copies and do some "evangelizing" to some of the feedlot farmers around here and see if we can't win some converts to this far better way of living! It'll be a Compassionate Carnivore Crusade!!
Thanks, Catherine, for having the courage to write such a book in the face of the current "meat-on-the-cheap" megafarm, feedlot mentality on the one hand AND in the face of the "humans should be herbivores" mentality on the other. I'm recommending your book to all my farming friends and I've bought your other book too, Hit By A Farm!
-Michael Dudek
A great read about responsible eating October 2, 2008
jpltpl (Cambridge, MA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have read just about everything out there on local and responsible eating, and had been a fan of Ms. Friend's ever since reading Hit By a Farm. I was thrilled to see she had a new book out, and was anxious to get my hands on it. I have since purchased a bunch of copies for friends and have discussed it with everyone from my CSA farmer to my local butcher to my vegan friends. As a former vegetarian and as a person who cares deeply about where my food comes from, I can't recommend a more articulate and well-written discussion. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to take responsibility for the food they eat.
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