The Carnivore's Manifesto: Eating Well, Eating Responsibly, and Eating Meat

by Patrick Martins, Mike Edison (With), Alice Waters (Foreword by)

Overview

One of The Atlantic's Best Food Books of 2014
Fifty ways to be an enlightened carnivore, while taking better care of our planet and ourselves, from the founder of Slow Food USA.
We have evolved as meat eaters, proclaims Patrick Martins, and it's futile to deny it. But, given the destructive forces of the fast-food industry and factory farming, we need to make smart, informed choices about the food we eat and where it comes from. In 50 short chapters, Martins cuts through organize zealotry and the misleading jargon of food labeling to outline realistic steps everyone can take to be part of the sustainable-food movement. With wit, and insight, and no small amount of provocation, THE CARNIVORE'S MANIFESTO is both a revolutionary call to arms and a rollicking good read that will inspire, engage, and challenge anyone interested in the way we eat today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316256223
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/10/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Patrick Martins is a distributor of locally raised meat through his company Heritage Foods USA, which sends over 60,000 pounds of meat every week to New York's top restaurants. He is also a founder of Slow Food USA and a founder and on-air personality at Heritage Radio Network, which has over 1 million visitors a month. He lives in Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

Forword Alice Waters xi

Introduction: The Revolution Starts Now 3

1 A Is for Apprentice 21

2 The $140 Turkey 27

3 To Hell with Local, Eat the Best 30

4 Learn to Build a Fire 33

5 Survival of the Fattest 36

6 Commodity vs. Quality 39

7 Slow Food Is Fast Food 43

8 Merchants Matter 47

9 Bessie and Babe, Fluffy and Fido 53

10 Night of the Hunter 58

11 Têtoir: Feed Your Head 61

12 Twelve Great American Têtoirs 65

13 Give the People What They Want 78

14 Hello, I Am a Pig 81

15 Take My Ham, Please 85

16 You Can't Avoid Processed Food 89

17 Eat an Endangered Species 92

18 Slow Business, Part I: Meet Me in the Middle 97

19 Don't Make Ketchup 101

20 Nose to Tail: Let's Grind 103

21 Not-So-Candid Camera 108

22 Sleep with Your Butcher. And Maybe Your Bartender 110

23 And the Truck Driver Shall Inherit the Earth 114

24 Carlo Petrini 119

25 Sex Sells, or, For Every Season There Is a Meat 125

26 Let It Rot 131

27 Build a Slaughterhouse 135

28 Slow Down 138

29 Vegetarian, You Have Blood on Your Hands! 141

30 Take Back Lunch 145

31 Remember The Whole Earth Catalog! 148

32 Consider the Turkey 153

33 We Answer to a Higher Authority 160

34 I Am a Goat 163

35 Share the Shit 166

36 Healthy Animals Don't Need Medicine 169

37 National Farmers' Day 171

38 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 175

39 Revolutionaries Wanted, Inquire Within 178

40 Ted Turner 181

41 Alphabet Soup 186

42 Don't Be a Hipster Hater 190

43 I Am a Cow 193

44 Slow Business, Part II: How to Make Bread 196

45 It's the Meat 200

46 Splendor in the Tallgrass 203

47 Letter to a Farmer 207

48 Don't Forget to Feast 212

49 A Fairy Tale 218

50 In the Year 2222 … 229

Essential Reading 235

Acknowledgments 239

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2014
In this "manifesto," the authors cover a range of subjects relating to "eating the best and preserving the unique." The 50 chapters, which have catchy titles and are fewer than five pages in length each address, for example, "Not So Candid Camera" (which discusses how the meat industry is not transparent); "Take Back Lunch" (pack your lunch or eat at local restaurants, say the authors); and "Let It Rot" (addressing the obsession with sell-by-date). Other topics include raising heritage breeds, sustainable farming, and even the steps for building a slaughterhouse. After working with Carlo Petrini, the originator of the Slow Food Movement, Martins began his quest of buying and eating locally. He then formed Slow Food USA and followed with its marketing arm, Heritage Foods USA. The author's conversational style may bother serious readers and those who are not used to nonfiction that includes cursing. However, there's no question that Martins is sincere in his quest to preserve breeds of animals and to encourage anyone who will listen that it is vital to care, cultivate, and connect. VERDICT Libraries with patrons who are interested in the topic may consider this title.—Christine E. Bulson, emeritus, Milne Lib., SUNY Oneonta

Library Journal

05/05/2014
Martins, founder of Slow Foods USA and Heritage Foods USA, which distributes rare-breed, humanely raised heritage meats, clearly has a financial stake in getting people to turn their backs on factory farms and fast food, but he also puts his money where his mouth is. Using 50 ultrashort chapters full of one-liners (“Slow food is people. Not the same way that Soylent Green is people”) and featuring conversational prose straight out of Martins’s radio show, the author has created a blueprint for healthy eating, sustainable farming, biodiversity, as well as for protecting culinary traditions and cultural differences. Martins is passionate, preachy, and, above all, practical—he doesn’t want you to make your own ketchup or give up pizza, just to buy the best meat and produce that is in season and to chose “quality” food over “commodity” food. While he doesn’t solve problems like how low-income families can find or afford “quality food” or how “global warming is turning agricultural havens into deserts,” he does present a commonsense approach to eating, farming, and food processing that would benefit both our taste buds and our planet. Agent: Angela Miller, the Miller Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"One of the best and most succinct arguments for buying sustainable food."—Corby Kummer, The Atlantic

"Passionate, thoughtful and more than occasionally amusing."—Ralph Gardner Jr., The Wall Street Journal

"The Carnivore's Manifesto is about a lot more than eating meat. It's about living well and having fun while being conscious of what goes into your body."—Mario Batali

"Patrick Martins is the shepherd of domesticated animal rights. Tend to them mercifully, then 'eat 'em if you want to keep 'em,' he's always said. This manifesto offers a unique perspective in an edgy, guerrilla style. You'll find it impossible to put to pasture."—Mark Ladner, executive chef at Del Posto, New York

"Read this book!"—Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food International

"Martins, founder of Slow Foods USA and Heritage Foods USA . . . has created a blueprint for healthy eating, sustainable farming, biodiversity, as well as for protecting culinary traditions and cultural differences. [He] is passionate, preachy, and, above all, practical-he doesn't want you to make your own ketchup or give up pizza, just to buy the best meat and produce that is in season and to chose "quality" food over "commodity" food."—Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

2014-04-22
A loosely organized, lively and challenging collection of observations, ideas, philosophical meanderings and ethical concerns related to the meat we put on our plates.Along with former High Times editor Edison (Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!: Of Playboys, Pigs, and Penthouse Paupers—An American Tale of Sex and Wonder, 2011, etc.), Martins takes a scattershot approach to the discussion, dividing the book into 50 short chapters that cut a wide swath, covering everything from slow food principles to the inhumane treatment of animals on factory farms to how to build a slaughterhouse and the importance of biodiversity and rare heritage breeds. Martins uses the word têtoir for cultures and communities that hand down food traditions, creating distinctive flavors much in the way terroir gives wine its distinct characteristics. Martins, who founded Slow Food USA, now runs Heritage Foods USA, a purveyor of meats from farmers who humanely raise rare or heritage breeds without antibiotics or hormones. His free-ranging thought process, at times distracting, always comes back to slow food basics: "…sourcing responsibly, recognizing the farmer's work and understanding exactly what we are eating and where it comes from." For example, a dirt-scratching Narragansett turkey that freely roamed the barnyard will have a different taste than one raised in a windowless barn under bright lights, its beak and toenails removed, unable to stand due to its inordinately large breasts. Consumers may abhor such treatment, but are they ready to pay $140 for "a robust, healthy animal that lived a great life?" Martins recognizes that the economic realities of big agriculture vs. independent farmers, distributors and purveyors are the biggest obstacles to his manifesto, but he remains optimistic that consumer demand may eventually bring changes to the supply chain. It begins with getting to know the farmers, butchers and green grocers who bring food to our tables; it's about "provenance."A passionate call for "responsible meat-eating" and what that means, as well as an explanation of the small steps required for accomplishing it.

Kirkus Reviews