The Carnivore’s Manifesto: Eating Well, Eating Responsibly, and Eating Meat

Martins, founder of Slow Foods USA and Heritage Foods USA, which distributes rare-breed, humanely raised heritage meats, clearly has a financial stake in getting people to turn their backs on factory farms and fast food, but he also puts his money where his mouth is. Using 50 ultrashort chapters full of one-liners (“Slow food is people. Not the same way that Soylent Green is people”) and featuring conversational prose straight out of Martins’s radio show, the author has created a blueprint for healthy eating, sustainable farming, biodiversity, as well as for protecting culinary traditions and cultural differences. Martins is passionate, preachy, and, above all, practical—he doesn’t want you to make your own ketchup or give up pizza, just to buy the best meat and produce that is in season and to chose “quality” food over “commodity” food. While he doesn’t solve problems like how low-income families can find or afford “quality food” or how “global warming is turning agricultural havens into deserts,” he does present a commonsense approach to eating, farming, and food processing that would benefit both our taste buds and our planet. Agent: Angela Miller, the Miller Agency. (June)