Eating with Conscience: Bioethics for Consumers [Paperback]

Fox (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's no question where Fox, a veterinarian and long-time Humane Society official, stands on how food is produced in this country. But can he convince the skeptics? In this persuasive illumination of the inner workings of the national food industry, Fox (The Boundless Circle) relies on numbers, and lots of them, rather than shrill rhetoric. For example, he reports that 7000 calves, 130,000 cattle, 360,000 pigs and 24 million chickens are killed every day (the average American consumes 2400 animals in a lifetime). Fox considers food-borne diseases resulting from virtually uninspected slaughtering conditions "as the new plagues," like the 1992-1994 "mad cow" disease in Britain. A year later in the U.S., more than 10 million "diseased, dead, dying, and debilitated cattle" and other consumable animals were "rendered" into other products. Corporations have reduced hands-on family farmers to 2% of the population; one-third of the topsoil of cropland has been lost in the last century, a loss Fox attributes primarily to livestock production; and about 150 million pounds of herbicides are spread on crops annually. Fox stresses that individuals can do something, including simply eating more vegetables; according to the British Medical Journal, "Vegetarians are 40% less likely to die of cancer than meat eaters." Fox also urges consumers to protest federal subsidies for foreign marketing by giant food conglomerates. Anyone who eats will remember this the next time at table as a shivering, cautionary tale.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: NewSage Press (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939165309
• ISBN-13: 978-0939165308
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,961,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessary read for anyone who eats..., February 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Eating with Conscience: Bioethics for Consumers (Paperback)

Dr. Fox has written a concise, readable, and utterly non-extremist review of Agribusiness. I thought that when I opened this book, I might be faced with ranting and horrid pictures. Not the case. This book explores the political arena, the ethical arena, the consumer arena of our food chain. At the end of this chain rest the animals---pumped with drugs and hormones, living unhealthy lives and passing that dis-ease in their bodies onto us. We call it steak and breast meat. It is, in a sense, poison---really---and Fox shows us why and how. Beautifully done!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought for food for thought, November 19, 2007

By 

Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eating with Conscience: Bioethics for Consumers (Paperback)

A call to anarchy, this slim book includes all of the incitement anyone could possibly need to join the organic/vegetarian revolution. The modern agro-industrial food system is poisoning us and the earth, torturing animals and starving people. It is a heavily subsidized, often monopolistic and is being run for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. Fox calls out to all of us to pay attention to what's on our plates, look hard at where it is coming from, and mend our ways. He includes a short list of easily followed guidelines for purchasing food, and ten commandments for farmers and food merchants. This one will leave you wondering if Ronald McDonald seems amusing to the 50% of Guatemalan children who are starving to death while that country ships millions of pounds of hamburger to the U.S. each year. It will make you question who's paying off whom to keep the USDA behind dietary suggestions that are unscientific and unhealthy. It will strengthen your resolve to buy locally produced, organic food and thank the farmers who are gentle to our earth.