cover image Diet for a Gentle WOR

Diet for a Gentle WOR

Leslie R. Inglis, Les Inglis. Avery Publishing Group, $7.95 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-89529-581-1

While few would dispute that over-consumption of meat can lead to health problems, Inglis ( Life After Beef ) appeals, in this vegetarian manifesto, not only to our desire to lead healthier lives but also to our conscience: ``The world around us--the animals, the plants, and our environment--suffers from our selection of food.'' The author recognizes the spiritual connection of nourishment with the earth and the life around us, and imbues animals with emotions. The book considers three main concerns: human health, animal suffering, and wildlife and environmental problems. Inglis reveals how the meat industry deliberately separates the end-product from the farm animal--`` Beef and pork bring to mind only pictures of chops and roasts, not four-legged creatures with feelings.'' He encourages us to consider the animals' fear and pain before we chow down on that barbecued chicken, and to a large extent his depictions of animal suffering are moving. (The typical day he recounts of life and death at an egg factory, complete with the details of how chickens are debeaked and declawed, may be enough to persuade most of us.) Inglis also presents a more analytical argument to demonstrate how modern agriculture is destroying the environment through loss of topsoil, reduction of soil fertility from unrotated crops, desertification of rain forests and misuse of pesticides. In conclusion, he suggests how to give up an animal-based diet by reduction (partial substitutions of non-animal foods), refinement (using only meat and dairy products that have been humanely raised, i.e., organic), and replacement (becoming a strict vegetarian.) Inglis may credit chickens with more emotional and intellectual complexity than they actually merit, but he does open our eyes to the pain that precedes a meal. (June)