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A review by ladydewinter
Food Revolution by John Robbins
3.0
At this point, I didn't learn too many things I didn't already know from this, but I'm still glad I read it. Robbins illustrates once again the effects our eating habits - in particular, consuming animal products - have on our health, the animals' welfare, our planet and world hunger. Hint: they aren't *good* effects.
If there is one thing I wish it's that more of my friends were to read a book like that. Less than a year ago, I had only a vague idea that what I was doing wasn't exactly right and good, and I did a great job not thinking about it. I don't want to preach to anybody about what they're eating, but I just - reading how badly most people's diets effects everything around us is just shocking sometimes. And even though my main concern are the animals, I also would love it if my friends were to live to be 150 years and not be sick, and of course I would also love it if mankind were to stop using nature as a means to make as much profit as possible.
But to get back to the book - while I did like it, some of the structure took some getting used to. And while I understand what the author wanted to do by contrasting different opinions, sometimes that seemed a bit cheap (I think Jonathan Safran Foer did that better, although I am not sure why I feel that way.) And every time he used numbers to illustrate these opinions, it just seemed a bit.. unprofessional. I don't doubt the numbers, and I accept that there's a huge list of literature in the back, but it feels like he just picked the best numbers to illustrate his point. I think what I want to say is that it felt too subjective, even though I (rationally) know that a chart or other statistics can be just as manipulated. Either way, it didn't affect my judgment of the book as a whole too much.
I admit that sometimes Robbins seems a bit too nice in his approach, but then again, his way is probably more convincing for people. Sometimes it was bordering on being a bit too "esoteric" for my taste, but it never got bad enough to bug me. And I did like the notion of compassion that comes up again and again.
So overall, while I did have some nitpicks, this book does give a good overview what's problematic about the so-called standard Western diet.
If there is one thing I wish it's that more of my friends were to read a book like that. Less than a year ago, I had only a vague idea that what I was doing wasn't exactly right and good, and I did a great job not thinking about it. I don't want to preach to anybody about what they're eating, but I just - reading how badly most people's diets effects everything around us is just shocking sometimes. And even though my main concern are the animals, I also would love it if my friends were to live to be 150 years and not be sick, and of course I would also love it if mankind were to stop using nature as a means to make as much profit as possible.
But to get back to the book - while I did like it, some of the structure took some getting used to. And while I understand what the author wanted to do by contrasting different opinions, sometimes that seemed a bit cheap (I think Jonathan Safran Foer did that better, although I am not sure why I feel that way.) And every time he used numbers to illustrate these opinions, it just seemed a bit.. unprofessional. I don't doubt the numbers, and I accept that there's a huge list of literature in the back, but it feels like he just picked the best numbers to illustrate his point. I think what I want to say is that it felt too subjective, even though I (rationally) know that a chart or other statistics can be just as manipulated. Either way, it didn't affect my judgment of the book as a whole too much.
I admit that sometimes Robbins seems a bit too nice in his approach, but then again, his way is probably more convincing for people. Sometimes it was bordering on being a bit too "esoteric" for my taste, but it never got bad enough to bug me. And I did like the notion of compassion that comes up again and again.
So overall, while I did have some nitpicks, this book does give a good overview what's problematic about the so-called standard Western diet.