Happy Meat: The Sadness and Joy of a Paradoxical Idea (1) (Culture and Economic Life)

Synopsis

North Americans love eating meat. Despite the increased awareness of the meat industry's harms–violence against animals, health problems, and associations with environmental degradation–the rate of meat eating hasn't changed significantly in recent years. Instead, what has emerged is an uncomfortable paradox: a need to square one's values with the behaviors that contradict those values. Using a large-scale, multidimensional, and original dataset, Happy Meat explores the thoughts and emotions that underpin our moral decision-making in this meat paradox. Conscientious meat-eaters turn to the notion of "happy meat" to make sense of their behaviors by consuming meat they see as more healthy, ethical, and sustainable. Happy meat might be labeled grass fed, free-range, antibiotic free, naturally raised, or humane. The people who produce and consume it, together, make up the complex landscape of conscientious meat-eating in modern Western societies. The discourse of happy meat ultimately may not be a sufficient response to all the critiques of meat eating, rife as it is with contradictions. However, it offers a powerful case for understanding how moral boundaries and notions of the 'good eater' are constructed through negotiations of values, identity, and status.

Copyright:

2025

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

320 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781503642843

Related ISBNs:

9781503642836, 9781503638334

Publisher:

Stanford University Press

Date of Addition:

06/17/25

Copyrighted By:

Josée Johnston, Shyon Baumann, Emily Huddart, and Merin Oleschuk.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Cooking, Food and Wine, Psychology, Social Studies

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.