The Vegetarian Myth

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability is a 2009 book by Lierre Keith.

Keith is an ex-vegetarian who believes vegetarianism has damaged her health, and others.^[1] Keith argues that agriculture is destroying not only human health but entire ecosystems, such as the North American prairie and destroys topsoil.^[2]

The book resulted in extreme reactions by her critics who engaged in online rants, bad faith accusations and calling Keith a liar, going as far as Keith being physically assaulted at a book reading.^[3] Aric McBay says that Keith is not being provacative for the sake of it, rather she believes vegetarians have the right impulse but are misinformed about the facts.^[4] Ian Fitzpatrick wrote that the book is at the core about the unsustainable nature of modern agriculture, but is "disguised" as a treaty against vegetarianism.^[5] Susan Schenck, herself a vegetarian, said the book was "full of hard core indisputable research" and praised its take down of the so-called cholesterol myth and the impacts of soy which she says is causing Alzheimer's, early puberty, undescended testicles, and cancer. However Schenck disagrees that vegetarians are necessarily unhealthy, believing each individual has different abilities to synthesize the needed nutrients from different foods.^[6]

References