The Vegetarian Myth

Food, Justice, and Sustainability

By: Lierre Keith

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

We’ve been told that a vegetarian diet can feed the hungry, honor the animals, and save the planet. Lierre Keith believed in that plant-based diet and spent twenty years as a vegan. But in The Vegetarian Myth, she argues that we’ve been led astray - not by our longings for a just and sustainable world, but by our ignorance.

The truth is that agriculture is a relentless assault against the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. In service to annual grains, humans have devastated prairies and forests, driven countless species extinct, altered the climate, and destroyed the topsoil - the basis of life itself. Keith argues that if we are to save this planet, our food must be an act of profound and abiding repair: it must come from inside living communities, not be imposed across them. Part memoir, part nutritional primer, and part political manifesto, The Vegetarian Myth will challenge everything you thought you knew about food politics.

©2009 Lierre Keith (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Lierre Keith’s book is beyond fantastic." (Dr. Michael Eades, author of Protein Power)

"This book saved my life. Not only does The Vegetarian Myth make clear how we should be eating, but also how the dominant food system is killing the planet. This necessary book challenges many of the destructive myths we live by and offers us a way back into our bodies, and back into the fight to save the planet." (Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame and A Language Older Than Words

"Everyone interested in healthy eating should be grateful to Lierre Keith." (Sally Fallon Morell, President, The Weston A. Price Foundation)

Connection of many real problems

Lierre Keith connects Permaculture, real gardening, soil food web, locavorism, Weston A. Price research, hunter gatherer culture, big pharma, the so called food industry, oil companies, the health industry and the dogmatic religions and beliefs full of homocentric stupidity and relates it all by unwrapping all lies and all truths little by little.

Great info

Great info on the facts of distruction of our food systems, lies, big Agro… But too much philosophical and political jargon for me.

Awesome reading

Awesome reading, very well researched, very thoughtful, and very well performed. Much recommended for everyone!

Great listen and informative!

I'm very happy to get an x- vegans perspective on this! So many times you hear the debates of vegans vs omnivore and it's so one sided. This is smart and informative on a level you can only get from someone who is willing to explain each side from experience. I'm sad to hear of all the damage the vegan diet has done to the author but her willing to speak, even tho she is getting threats, is courage. 🖖

Interesting, thought provoking, wrong solutions

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend this book to anyone who is or is contemplating becoming vegan or vegetarian. I would also recommend this book to those who have friends or family who are vegan or vegetarian. I would recommend this book to healthcare professionals and nutritionals who work with those with eating disorders. I would not recommend this book to those who cannot filter out Ms. Keith's constant negativity, radical feminism, atheism (maybe it's paganism)

What could Lierre Keith have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Ms. Keith constantly harks back to her radical feminist (masculine hating) views. Who is she to tell me to "get a vasectomy?" Who is she to tell me there is no God, there is no creator? Does she not know that the much quoted and admired Joel Salatin is a Christian who believes in the right to life, having lots of kids and only hires the clean cut, all American kids for his apprenticeship program?

Which scene was your favorite?

The friend who invited Lierri to dinner and forgot twice ... "does eating soy really cause memory loss?"

Could you see The Vegetarian Myth being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Glenn Close ... as she appeared in "101 Dalmatians" Only replace the word "puppies" with "men"

Any additional comments?

By the end of the book I felt sorry for Ms. Keith. First because of the physical ailments 20 years of veganism gave her but also because of the obvious fractured psychological, mental and spiritual ethos. She says her physical ailments will never fully heal but she fails to recognize that her anger and hatred towards the masculine may be other side effects of the 20 years a vegan. She says it herself ... Clinical studies in rigorously controlled environments have also fount that low-fat diets increase anger, depression and anxiety. Low cholesterol levels occur more often amongst criminals, individuals diagnosed with violent and aggressive conduct disorders homicidal offenders ...(and so on)." Maybe one could add men hating feminist / environmentalist?

interesting perspective

There is a lot of depth in its very personal book; it's professional. It's factual. It's scientific; it's emotional. I got a lot of information from it.

Mind-blowing

WOW. This book really opened up my mind and helped me learn more about the impact of vegetarian/vegan diets. I hope more people read this book because it is very well written and really important. Thank you!

a must read!!

for every vegan and vegetarian, it’s an absolutely life changing book everyone should read! thank you Lierr,

This important book changed my life

I want to thank Lierre Keith for having the courage to write such an in-depth, well thought-through book.

The #1 reason I had been steadfastly following the Vegan diet - despite health issues that were becoming more and more pronounced - was that I thought I was doing my part to save the planet and help animals.

But when she explains the bigger picture - the far more devastating consequences of Big Agriculture to animals and their habitat - the floodgates were opened.

I reviewed in my mind my own health journey as I listened to Lierre talk about hers, and I could no longer deny that the decay in my spine was more than just a little inconvenience…and that if I didn’t change my diet that I was only going to get worse.

Lierre’s compassionate approach to understand the identity I had as a Vegan in a Vegan community also helped me have the courage to save my life and get to the business of REALLY doing something that could make a difference.

Lierre, I know you are enduring backlash from the Vegan community, but you quite possibly have saved my life - certainly the quality and happiness of the rest of my life. I hope you remember all the people you have touched and will continue to touch for a long time hence.

Thank you.

Oh, and the reason I gave the performance one less star was that the tone in the reader’s voice is a little too shame-laced. I’d prefer more of a “just-the-facts-ma’am” approach with a kinder voice. But otherwise she read excellently.

Finally, this book goes into depth and on many many facets of life that are affected by our diet. It’s quite epic.

Thank you.

Eye opening.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Vegetarian Myth to be better than the print version?

I havent read the print version so cant compare.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the amount of factual information and statistics that made the arguments strong.

Which scene was your favorite?

The beginning was good when she talks about the vegan who suggests a fence through the serengeti separating the herbivores from the carnivores.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Agriculture: A matter of life and death.

Any additional comments?

The author should write another book. "The Feminist Myth" The only thing I did not like about this book was her down-putting of masculinity as a whole. I completely agree in human rights and that the world is not where it should be as far as equality between the sexes, but I am a man. That is a cultural problem, not testosterone.