The Ethical Gourmet: How to Enjoy Great Food That Is Humanely Raised, Sustainable, Nonendangered and That Replenishes the Earth

Navigating the relative morality of buying local, buying organic or buying fairly traded food can be difficult, but this exhaustive guide is an excellent roadmap to socially conscious eating. In the first chapter, "The Politics of Food," Weinstein outlines the ways in which food production has become ironically fraught with destruction in the name of nourishment: environmental decay, wasteful packaging, inhumane treatment of animals and workers, the overuse of antibiotics and increasingly endangered species. By adhering to just a few principles, he argues, we can trade our decadent lifestyles for more sustainable practices. These include eating less meat, and choosing humanely raised game meats; eating more organic produce; choosing farm-raised fish and avoiding overfished species like wild salmon; and buying fairly traded coffee, chocolate and sugar. Weinstein provides a host of sophisticated, flavorful recipes that draw from guilt-free ingredients, like a vegetarian Moroccan Squash Tagine with Couscous and a Terrine of Duck Liver, a humane alternative to foie gras. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and contributor to the New York Times and Travel & Leisure , Weinstein is passionately serious about culinary ethics, but he is equally serious about the pleasures of eating. (June)