Food for the Soul
"...how can we live so that our participation is for the greatest good and the greatest healing for all beings?"
with John Robbins
As a vegetarian, I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of the inside dirt On animal husbandry. But it is one thing to know, it is quite another to feel. The fact that I can 't eat meat didn't protect me from the onslaught of shame and sadness that crashed through my head when I read Diet for a New America. I found it hard to believe that we had gone so far. I cried harder than I had in years.
As John Robbins points out, you don 't have to be an animal activist, or even particularly love animals, To be appalled, horrified, and outraged at what is being done in factory farms all over the country, all day, every day. It is so extreme. The book reads like sci-fi horror; a prophetic warning of the ripening of humanity 's faceless brutality. But the fact is, it been going on for years.
John Robbins surfaced from the Baskin Robbins ice cream family gene pool like some Strange new mutation--the thirty-second flavor who was destined to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the National Dairy Council. In his two books, the international best-seller Diet for a New America and May All Be Fed, he explains with straightforward clarity the link between our food habits and the health of our planet, our bodies, and our souls.
His manner is filled with the contagious buoyancy of a person who is being true to his conscience. He speaks with an impassioned sincerity--never patronizing, never self-righteous. We interviewed John at his home in Felton, California on June 9, 1994. In his mid-forties he still looks like a schoolboy, his wide blue eyes, elfin face, and Disney smile radiate with a childlike innocence. This is the man at the top of the Meat and Dairy Board's most-wanted list, you wonder? The man they consider so dangerous that they have meetings on ways to discredit him?
He is the founder of the nonprofit organization EarthSave, which concentrates on educating the public about health, nutrition, and sustainable energy consumption. He has spoken to a variety of audiences, including Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Sierra Club, the Humane Society of the United States, UNICEF and the United Nations Environmental Program, where he received a standing ovation.
Do you know that colon cancer is directly linked to meat consumption? Do you know that you save more water by not eating one pound of beef than you would from not showering for a whole year? Do you know the extent of the suffering involved in factory farming? Once you know, you can never act without that knowledge again. Here is the information, says John Robbins. Now it 's up to you. Bon appetite!
RMN