Book Review: Pamela Rice’s “101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian”

Posted June 7, 2007 at 12:00 PM by Katie Drummond

Section: Her Health, Her Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Vegetarianism, Weight Control, Special Features, HAL Reviews

The merit of a vegetarian lifestyle is a frequent topic of debate, whether between family members at the dinner table or among those working in causes related to health and nutrition, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare. Those looking to bolster their arguments for meat-free living now have a one-stop resource in Pamela Rice’s 101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian.

Rice, a longtime vegetarian advocate and founder of the Vegetarian Center in New York City, has produced a comprehensive and compelling work that challenges both the omnivore and even the most well-informed vegetarian; she makes note of new studies and facts that reveal a lot of information to both groups about the troubling implications of the standard American diet.

Rice writes that she hopes to give readers a full picture of the grounds for vegetarianism, and her book is organized to make it nearly impossible to get anything but a complete perspective on the myriad of issues at hand. From brutal descriptions of animal mistreatment to the astonishing ecological impact of meat-based diets, Rice intersperses reasons based on socioeconomics, nutrition, sustainability, and animal welfare without dividing them into sections for the reader to flip to.

The result? You will no doubt read things you would otherwise be apt to skip – like heinous descriptions of cramped and tortured living conditions for animals in factory farms – and be exposed to every angle of her argument for meat-free living. Those new to the facts will glean a broad range of ideas, and those who have chosen vegetarianism for a particular reason will be exposed to other motives for the meatless way of life.

Though one might like to discount many of Rice’s contentions, like the claim that omnivorous American diets are literally killing off the continent or the contention that the next global pandemic will inevitably be linked to diseases running rampant in industrial animal farming, her research – to her credit - is undeniably thorough. According to Rice, meat is killing us – 4,500 studies have linked its consumption to cancer. Animal illness can infect humans - the 2003 avian flu crisis led to the slaughter of 200 million chickens and five deadly human outbreaks.

Some of the information Rice cites will be familiar to omnivores and vegetarians alike, such as the oft-touted health benefits of a low fat, high fiber vegetarian diet. That said, much here is surprising, like the fact that despite a 1997 ban on feeding cows the byproducts of slaughtered carcasses, meat and bone meal is still routinely added to bovine feed on American farms – a practice that greatly increases the risk of mad cow disease.

By combining startling statistics and studies that illustrate the implications of animal consumption with research that promotes a meat-free lifestyle, Rice offers a double-pronged argument for readers to grapple with. Her impressive scholarship and broad range of covered topics combine to make her book hard to put down and ignore. Her claims about environmental degradation and animal mistreatment might initially seem repetitive, but Rice is never redundant – though many of her 101 reasons lead readers to the same general conclusion (that animal agriculture is draining our global water supply, for example), each and every reason is still unique, specific, and bolstered by research. Rather than being bored by the repetition, readers are faced with a number of examples proving the same basic points – making Rice’s arguments even harder to deny.

Rather than a passive stance that merely suggests a transition to vegetarianism, Rice takes a hard line on the lifestyle she advocates, and her passion is well-founded in years of research about the various facets of animal agriculture and consumption. From the knowledgeable vegan activist looking to strengthen her arguments to anyone interested in learning more about the implications of their eating, Rice’s book will challenge even the most ardent meat-eater’s stance on which diet is best suited not only to human and animal wellness, but to the sustained health of our planet as well.