October
2004
Dismantling
Animal Agriculture
Book Review by Mark Hawthorne
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Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money by Erik Marcus (Ithaca: Brio Press,
2005*). $21.95 hardback; $14.95 paperback. 288 pages.
In the 1990s, frustrated by the lack of literature in the vegan movement,
animal advocate and former technical writer Erik Marcus turned his communications
skills to creating books and other materials that vegans and non-vegans
alike would find accessible and informative. His first book, the groundbreaking
Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating (1997), introduced many readers
to a new kind of activist writing: prose that makes its case without
overt
emotional appeals—the facts eloquently speak for themselves. Vegan
showed that Marcus didn’t mind challenging some of the movement’s
cherished tenets. The book was well received, regarded by many critics
as on par with the work of John Robbins, and has become an indispensable
guide to vegan living.
Among the few critical remarks reviewers offered of Vegan was
that Marcus could have gone into greater depth on how meat production
strains the
environment and
natural resources. Rather than simply an oversight, perhaps that was in keeping
with the author’s broader philosophy, which becomes clear in his latest
book, Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money. This powerful indictment
of factory farming examines the abuses perpetrated by corporate agriculture,
and also offers
an assessment of how the animal protection movement can claim victory—and
the good news is, his proposal makes sense.
Meat Market is organized into three main sections, beginning with an
exploration of how the mega-corporations that rule the agriculture industry have
created
many of their own problems—and, by extension, misery for animals—by
striving for consolidation and economic restructuring. When we read of agriculture’s
often-ridiculous assertions (the beef industry, for example, claims that it cares
about animal welfare, yet it persists in rejecting animal welfare reforms), we
have to wonder how factory farms can even stay in business. They do so, says
Marcus, by maintaining an efficiency that disregards many of the basic needs
of farmed animals and, ultimately, by keeping their cruel conduct out of public
view. Meat Market will likely bring the compassionate reader, perhaps uninitiated
in the methods of intensive animal confinement, to an emotional crossroads. Of
course, this is the book’s ideal audience: those flexitarian and ethically
minded diners most likely to fully embrace a vegetarian or even vegan lifestyle,
if only they were confronted with the compelling documentation found in a book
like this one, which presents the cold facts of modern agribusiness.
And what cold facts they are. Meat Market is at times a distressing
exposé of
what those in industrialized agriculture euphemistically call “Concentrated
Animal Feeding Operations.” Marcus invites readers to witness the brief,
tortured lives of animals raised for food. We meet cattle who are butchered while
still alive because the slaughterhouse line must not be interrupted; barely hatched
male chicks who are cast into grinders, also alive, because they have no value
(male chicks grow too slowly and don’t lay eggs); and pigs who die from
respiratory ailments because the air inside pig sheds is so fouled with contaminants.
Many readers will be familiar with these practices, but there are surprises for
the engaged advocate, too, such as Marcus’ assertion that consuming eggs
contributes more to animal suffering than consuming meat products. This is an
example of the author’s unconventional thinking—he boldly offers
new perspectives on accepted wisdom—and is one reason Marcus’ work
is such an important contribution to animal advocacy. (Indeed, a 2000 poll conducted
by thevegetariansite.com ranked Erik Marcus as one of the most influential people
in the vegan movement, placing him in the company of such activists as Peter
Singer and Ingrid Newkirk.)
Breaking the Chains
Meat Market goes beyond the popular three-pronged argument for veganism:
that a plant-based diet is good for our health, the environment and the animals.
And
while Marcus isn’t the first to suggest that the struggle to end animal
exploitation is similar to the abolitionist movement, he recommends in Part Two
that animal protectionists learn from anti-slavery proponents and focus their
attention on the evils of factory farming. Abolitionists recognized that 19th
century America was not ready for racial equality, but most Americans could agree
that slavery was abhorrent. The lesson for the animal welfare movement, according
to Marcus, is to avoid debates about veganism being good for the planet or our
bodies and instead invest the full force of its energy into the position that
factory farming, like slavery, is inherently evil. He also cautions against diluting
the animal welfare issue with arguments pertaining to hunting, medical research
or companion animals, since these shift attention away from farmed animals and
allow the animal agriculture industry to win a wider share of public opinion.
A change in policy, Marcus believes, would lead to the dismantling of animal
agriculture. The author devotes much of the middle section to this bold premise,
defining a new movement to finally liberate animals from factory farming. “The
surest way to eliminate animal agriculture’s cruelties is to seek to eliminate
animal agriculture itself,” he writes. “To accomplish this, we need
a new movement expressly designed to go on the offensive, with the purpose of
ushering animal agriculture out of existence.”
It’s in this second section that Meat Market truly excels. The
writing is cogent and immensely readable, and his insights should appeal to anyone
interested
in animal advocacy. It is exciting to read a book that introduces fresh ideas
to frustrating struggles, and I felt like a kid reading the latest Harry Potter
story, devouring page after page of hopeful recommendations. Marcus’ proposed
movement might not seem radical on paper, but it would call for a paradigm shift
that most activists are probably not prepared for. He also makes a tenable argument
against some forms of militancy (destroying property in the name of animal welfare).
The Power of Outreach
The final third of Meat Market consists of a wealth of supplementary material:
eight activist essays and nine appendices covering the most fundamental arguments
in favor of a plant-based diet. The essay writing varies in quality, but the
activists, who range from a retiree to an M.D., offer some sound advice for aspiring
advocates and demonstrate that anyone can be involved in vegan outreach, something
Marcus considers critical to bringing down factory farming.
The appendices, meanwhile, cover some familiar ground, starting with the health
and environmental consequences of eating meat. But there’s additional material
that, while not part of Marcus’ main proposition, nonetheless supports
vegan ethics and will come in very handy should you find yourself having to defend
the activist position on hunting, selective breeding, animal testing or the meatpacking
industry, still one of the most hazardous in the country. The author concludes
with a recommended reading list and an extensive collection of explanatory endnotes
that add a significant layer of texture to his well-woven polemic. Meticulously
researched and devoid of lectures, Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money is
an invaluable addition to vegan literature.
* Note: Marcus is offering Meat Market in a limited advanced printing
at a discount—$12.95
paperback and $16.95 hardcover (he will sign all hardcovers)—on his website, Vegan.com, and at speaking engagements through January, when the book will be
available nationwide.
Mark Hawthorne is a California-based writer and animal advocate.
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