Product Description

From John Robbins, a new edition of the classic that awakened the conscience of a nation. Since the 1987 publication of Diet for a New America, beef consumption in the United States has fallen a remarkable 19%. While many forces are contributing to this dramatic shift in our habits, Diet for a New America is considered to be one of the most important. Diet for a New America is a startling examination of the food we currently buy and eat in the United States, and the astounding moral, economic, and emotional price we pay for it.

In Section I, John Robbins takes an extraordinary look at our dependence on animals for food and the inhumane conditions under which these animals are raised. It becomes clear that the price we pay for our eating habits is measured in the suffering of animals, a suffering so extreme and needless that it disrupts our very place in the web of life.

Section II challenges the belief that consuming meat is a requirement for health by pointing our the vastly increased rate of disease caused by pesticides, hormones, additives, and other chemicals now a routine part of our food production. The author shows us that the high health risk is unnecessary, and that the production, preparation, and consumption of food can once again be a healthy process.

In Section III, Robbins looks at the global implications of a meat-based diet and concludes that the consumption of the resources necessary to produce meat is a major factor in our ecological crisis.

Diet for a New America is the single most eloquent argument for a vegetarian lifestyle ever published. Eloquently, evocatively, and entertainingly written, it is a cant put down book guaranteed to amaze, infuriate, but ultimately educate and empower the reader. A pivotal book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 1987.:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37081 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.21" h x 5.48" w x 8.32" l, 1.02 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This well-documented expose of America's "factory farms" should prompt even die-hard meat-and-potatoes lovers to reevaluate their diets. Asserting that "we are ingesting nightmares for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Robbins, who is medical director of the California Institute for Health and Healing, details how livestock is raised under increasingly industrialized conditions by "agribusiness oligopolies." Grazing and foraging have given way to debeaking, tail-docking, dehorning and castration, and treatment with pesticides, hormones, growth and appetite stimulants, tranquilizers and antibioticswhich, in turn, are assimilated by humans. The author correlates our "protein obsessed" society with a higher incidence of arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, cancer and other degenerative diseases, as well as freakish occurrences like premature puberty from estrogen contamination. As Robbins debunks nutritional myths perpetuated by the powerful meat and dairy industries (indicting as well his family's Baskin-Robbins ice-cream empire), this is sure to prove controversial. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Diet for a New America is a powerful indictment of our dietary practices that should be read by everyone interested in healthy living. It is a well-researched, well-documented and eye-opening account of the myths and truths about meat, milk, fat and protein. I will recommend this book to patients, friends, and relatives. -- Andrew Weil, M.D., Author, Spontaneous Healing

Diet for a New America is a powerful tool on the journey towards consciousness and compassion. I recommend it without reservation, and hope that many, many people will read it. -- Gary Zukav, Author, The Dancing Wu Li Masters

Diet for a New America will vitalize the awakening of America. This easy-to-read yet mind-boggling book has its place in the kitchen and in the doctors office, in every classroom, from preschool to university. For those involved in ecological and political issues, this book is a mustso it is for all of us who long for a practical economical way to foster a more sane, ethical and loving world. -- Laura Huxley, Author, This Timeless Moment

A reading must for all caring Americans. -- Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, Authors, Fit for Life

Diet for a New America is excellent! I can't speak highly enough of it. This book is a breakthrough in the science of health and a joy to read. No one who suffers (or whose loved ones suffer) from the diseases of our time can afford to ignore this potent message. In his captivating style, John Robbins shows us how to create health for ourselves, our children, and the world we live in. -- Dr. John McDougall, Author, The McDougall Plan

Every so often a book comes along which has the capacity to awaken the conscience of a nation. Silent Spring was one such book: I believe John Robbins volume is destined to be another. With consummate intelligence, thoroughness and skill, Robbins takes us on a multifaceted journey which should cause all sensitive people to question their eating habits most searchingly. I couldnt put it down. -- Cleveland Amory, President, Fund for Animals, Author, The Cat Who Came for Christmas

From the outset of reading this volume I was enthralled. The book is a pleasure to read, as engrossing as the most exciting novel. Yet this is no novelit deals directly with the most important personal issues and decisions of our lives. When I finished reading Diet for a New America, I knew that in my hands lay one of the most profound studies ever written of how our eating habits affect our lives, and indeed all of life on our planet . . . If you read only one book this year, let it be this one. -- Vegetarian Times magazine

In a tender, not strident, voice Robbins shows us why a humane society cannot be built upon an inhumane system of food production. Robbins does not play on our guilt, but shows us how our own well-being is linked to the development of radically new sensibilities to non-human life. I promise youwhat you perceive behind the supermarket meat counter will never be the same after reading Diet for a New America. -- Frances Moore Lapp, Author, Diet for a Small Planet

From the Publisher
To our readers: The books we publish are our contribution to an emerging world based on cooperation rather than on competition, on affirmation of the human spirit rather than on self-doubt, and on the certainty that all humanity is connected. Our goal is to touch as many lives as possible with a message of hope for a better world.Hal and Linda Kramer, Publishers