Why It's OK to Eat Meat

In Why It's OK to Eat Meat, Dan C. Shahar argues the answer is no: it's entirely possible to be an ethical person while continuing to eat meat-and not just the "fancy" offerings from the farmers' market but also the regular meat we find at most supermarkets and restaurants. Shahar's examination forcefully echoes vegetarians' concerns about the meat industry's impacts on animals, workers, the environment, and public health. However, he shows that the most influential ethical arguments for avoiding meat on the basis of these considerations are ultimately unpersuasive. Instead of insisting we all become vegetarians, Shahar argues each of us has broad latitude to choose which of the world's problems to tackle.

Key Features include:

• First book-length defense of meat-eating written for a popular audience

• Punchy, accessible introduction to the multifaceted debate over the ethics of eating meat

• Includes pioneering new examinations of humane labeling practices

• Shows why appeals to universalized patterns of behavior can't vindicate vegetarians' claims that there's a duty to avoid meat

• Develops a novel theory of ethical activism with potential applications to a wide range of other issues