The Ethical Meat Handbook

Small-scale meat processing and preservation for the home cook. Nutrition, environmental impact, ethics, sustainability-it seems like there's no end to the factors we must consider when we think about our food. At the center of the dietary storm is animal-based agriculture. Was your beef factory-farmed or pasture-raised? Did your chicken free range, or was it raised in a battery cage? Have you, in short, met your meat? Most efforts to unravel the complexities of the production and consumption of animal protein tend to pit meat eaters and vegetarians against each other. The Ethical Meat Handbook seeks a middle ground, arguing that by assuming full responsibility for the food on our fork, and more importantly, the route by which it gets there, animals can be an optimal source of food, fiber, and environmental management. This hands-on, practical guide covers: Integrating animals into your garden or homestead Basic butchery: whole animal, primals, subprimals, and end-cuts, including safety and knife skills Charcuterie: history, general science and math principles, tooling up, and recipes Culinary highlights: getting creative, preparing difficult cuts, sauces, ferments, difficult cuts and extras. Eating diversely may be the most revolutionary and proactive action we can take to ensure the sustainability of our food system. The Ethical Meat Handbook challenges us to take a hard look at our individual dietary choices, increase our self-reliance and at the same time enjoy delicious food that benefits our health and our planet.

“Leigh will teach you how to raise animals, butcher them, and cook and cure their meat. Even better, she explains what it means and why it matters.” —Mark Essig, author of Lesser Beasts Nutrition, environmental impact, ethics, sustainability—it seems like there’s no end to the food factors we must consider. At the center of the dietary storm is animal-based agriculture. Was your beef factory farmed or pasture-raised? Did your chicken free range, or was it raised in a battery cage? Have you, in short, met your meat? Most efforts to unravel the complexities of the production and consumption of animals tend to pit meat eaters and vegetarians against each other. In this second edition of The Ethical Meat Handbook, Meredith Leigh argues that by assuming responsibility for the food on our fork and the route by which it gets there, animals can be an optimal source of food, fiber, and environmental management. This new edition covers:Integrating animals into your garden or homesteadStep-by-step color photos for beef, pork, lamb, and poultry butchery100+ recipes for whole-animal cookingCulinary highlights: preparing difficult cuts, sauces, and extrasCharcuterie, including history, general science, principles, and tooling upThe economics and parameters for responsible meat production Eating diversely may be the most revolutionary action we can take to ensure the sustainability of our food system. The Ethical Meat Handbook, 2nd Edition challenges us to take a hard look at our dietary choices, increase self-reliance, and enjoy delicious food that benefits our health and our planet. “A powerful, positive book about a powerful, positive alternative, engaging us in shaping a new food and agriculture narrative.” —Jean-Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener

In this 2nd edition of The Ethical Meat Handbook author Meredith Leigh argues that by assuming responsibility for our food and the route by which it gets there, animals can be an optimal source of food, fiber, and environmental management. Featuring 100+ recipes, and discussions around responsible meat production and economics.

Heartfelt and wonderfully written, this is the kind of cookbook only butchers who think we should eat less meat could write.' MATTHEW EVANS 'I can't recommend this book highly enough - science-focused but with a contagiously energetic optimism, it's the antidote to despair we so desperately need. Read it, give it to your friends, then cook for them with whole, natural food. We can start repairing our land and nourishing our souls by dinner time.' CHARLOTTE WOOD We live in an affluent era marked by an increasingly fraught relationship to food, and meat is arguably the most controversial ingredient. There is a communal ache for authenticity, for a way forward with good conscience. The Ethical Omnivore explores the solution: living with a conscience; asking the right questions of whomever sells you meat or of the labels you read; and learning how to respect the animal so much that you're willing to cook something other than chicken breast. This book traces how animals can be raised ethically and demonstrates some ways regenerative farmers are outstanding in how they care for their animals. It offers tried-and-tested recipes from the Feather and Bone community, from simple and easy weeknight meals to slow roasts for special occasions. And it shows all of us how to live with less impact on the animals and environment that support us. The Ethical Omnivore is a user-friendly recipe and handbook that will open your eyes to a better way to buy, cook and eat.

Small-scale meat processing and preservation for the home cook. Nutrition, environmental impact, ethics, sustainability-it seems like there's no end to the factors we must consider when we think about our food. At the center of the dietary storm is animal-based agriculture. Was your beef factory-farmed or pasture-raised? Did your chicken free range, or was it raised in a battery cage? Have you, in short, met your meat? Most efforts to unravel the complexities of the production and consumption of animal protein tend to pit meat eaters and vegetarians against each other. The Ethical Meat Handbook seeks a middle ground, arguing that by assuming full responsibility for the food on our fork, and more importantly, the route by which it gets there, animals can be an optimal source of food, fiber, and environmental management. This hands-on, practical guide covers: Integrating animals into your garden or homestead Basic butchery: whole animal, primals, subprimals, and end-cuts, including safety and knife skills Charcuterie: history, general science and math principles, tooling up, and recipes Culinary highlights: getting creative, preparing difficult cuts, sauces, ferments, difficult cuts and extras. Eating diversely may be the most revolutionary and proactive action we can take to ensure the sustainability of our food system. The Ethical Meat Handbook challenges us to take a hard look at our individual dietary choices, increase our self-reliance and at the same time enjoy delicious food that benefits our health and our planet.

While the history of philosophy has traditionally given scant attention to food and the ethics of eating, in the last few decades the subject of food ethics has emerged as a major topic, encompassing a wide array of issues, including labor justice, public health, social inequity, animal rights and environmental ethics. This handbook provides a much needed philosophical analysis of the ethical implications of the need to eat and the role that food plays in social, cultural and political life. Unlike other books on the topic, this text integrates traditional approaches to the subject with cutting edge research in order to set a new agenda for philosophical discussions of food ethics. The Routledge Handbook of Food Ethics is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over 35 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into 7 parts: the phenomenology of food gender and food food and cultural diversity liberty, choice and food policy food and the environment farming and eating other animals food justice Essential reading for students and researchers in food ethics, it is also an invaluable resource for those in related disciplines such as environmental ethics and bioethics.

If you are one of the over twenty million Americans who have adopted vegetarianism, you know that living with and eating with meat eaters can present a myriad of difficult issues. Summer barbecues, Thanksgiving dinner, or even a simple business lunch can be cause for discussions questioning vegetarianism as a lifestyle choice—leading at best to awkward situations and at worst to anger and defensiveness. Beyond these often-tense encounters, simple day-to-day tasks such as grocery shopping and preparing the evening meal can be tough, especially when your husband, wife, partner, or child doesn't share your commitment to living as a vegetarian. In this bold and original book, Carol J. Adams offers real-life advice that vegetarians can use to defuse any situation in which their dietary choices may be under attack. She suggests viewing meat eaters as blocked vegetarians. Always insightful, this practical guide is full of self-tests, strategies, meditations on vegetarianism, and tips for dining out and entertaining at home when meat eaters are on the invite list. Offering more than fifty of Carol Adams's favorite vegetarian recipes, Living Among Meat Eaters is sure to become every vegetarian's most trusted source of support and information.

Food ethics, as an academic pursuit, is vast, incorporating work from philosophy as well as anthropology, economics, environmental sciences and other natural sciences, geography, law, and sociology. This Handbook provides a sample of recent philosophical work in food ethics. This philosophical work addresses ethical issues with agricultural production, the structure of the global food system, the ethics of personal food consumption, the ethics of food policy, and cultural understandings of food and eating, among other issues. The work in this Handbook draws on multiple literatures within philosophy, including practical ethics, normative ethics, and political philosophy, as well as drawing on non-philosophical work.