Building a Library Collection on Ethical Vegetarianism

Home , Mark Mathew Braunstein, Rynn Berry, The Ethics of Diet

Kerry Walters

SUMMARY. This article discusses six interrelated categories of resources on ethical vegetarianism, and reviews titles for each of the six essential categories for libraries. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website:  2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Vegetarianism, ethics and food, carnivorism, animals in religion

There are numerous reasons to embrace a vegetarian diet. Many people who do so say that health is their primary motive. However, an in- creasing number of people abstain from using animal products for religious and moral reasons. These three motives–health, religion, and

Kerry Walters is the William Bittinger Professor of Philosophy, Gettysburg Col- lege, PA. He is the author and editor of seventeen books, including Ethical Vegetarian- ism from Pythagoras to Peter Singer and Religious Vegetarianism from Hesiod to the Dalai Lama (both co-edited with Lisa Portmess). Address correspondence to: Kerry Walters, Philosophy Department, Box 404, Get- tysburg College, Gettysburg PA 17325. [Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Building a Library Collection on Ethical Vegetarianism.” Walters, Kerry. Co-published simultaneously in The Reference Librarian (The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) No. 86, 2004, pp. 81-91; and: Animals Are the Issue: Library Resources on Ani- mal Issues (ed: John M. Kistler) The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2004, pp. 81-91. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Deliv- ery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: docdelivery@haworthpress. com]. http://www.haworthpress.com/web/REF  2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J120v41n86_08 81 82 ANIMALS ARE THE ISSUE: LIBRARY RESOURCES ON ANIMAL ISSUES morality–are not, of course, incompatible. But, generally speaking, one motive will be given priority over the other two by individual vegetarians. Those people who adopt a vegetarian diet primarily because they are persuaded that it is the moral thing to do hold a position known as “ethical vegetarianism.” Ethical vegetarianism has a lineage that stretches back to antiquity. As might be expected, it can be difficult to draw clean distinctions between ethical and religious defenses of vegetarianism; this is particularly the case in ancient history. The ancient philosopher Pythagoras (6th century BC), for example, argued for the merits of a fleshless diet on the grounds that all life is kindred. Part of his argument for this claim is clearly based on the moral claim that one ought not to harm one’s “family.” But his underlying assertion that humans are akin to animals in turn is based on the religious conviction that human souls reincarnate in animals, so that eating an animal could literally be devouring a family member. The demarcation between ethical and religious defenses of vegetarianism is easier to discern today than in Pythagoras’ time (there is, however, still some ambiguity–where, for example, would Gandhi be positioned?). But another taxonomic difficulty has taken its place: where to locate vegetarianism in the expanding literature of animal rights and environmental ethics? Contemporary arguments for ethical vegetarianism are frequently embedded in wider moral concerns about animal welfare, ecological integrity, and human rights. Sometimes it is difficult to tease them out. Michael Allen Fox and Carol J. Adams, for example, draw interesting connections between the use of animals as food products and ecofeminism on the one hand and social construc- tions of gender on the other. Moreover, not all animal rights theorists or factory farm critics espouse vegetarianism, although their analyses could certainly be used as foundations for a defense of vegetarianism. The point is that literature on ethical vegetarianism is complex and multi-faceted, and frequently spills over into areas of inquiry that tradi- tional ethicists might hesitate to call “moral” and ethical vegetarians might hesitate to call “vegetarian.” The acquisitions librarian seeking to enrich holdings in ethical vegetarianism, then, should be prepared to search for titles that may not seem immediately relevant. Contrary to the old maxim, apples sometimes do fall far from the tree. Building a solid collection of ethical vegetarianism sources, then, will involve collecting works in six related categories. Kerry Walters 83

1. Reference works on vegetarianism that include ethical vegetarianism. 2. The history of ethical vegetarianism. 3. Comprehensive defenses of ethical vegetarianism. 4. Animal rights as it pertains to ethical vegetarianism. 5. Ethical vegetarianism and the food industry. 6. Ethical vegetarianism in relation to human and ecological concerns.

These categories aren’t written-in-stone, but are useful for locating a good variety of materials. What titles are essential for each category? Opinions will obviously vary. I list here what I consider to be the mini- mal essential works in each. Almost all of the works referenced here have rich bibliographies that the industrious librarian may consult to help grow a collection.

GENERAL REFERENCE WORKS

• Two indispensable reference works for any collection are Judith C. Dyer’s Vegetarianism: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow, 1982. 081081532X) and Charles R. Magel’s Keyguide to Informa- tion Resources in Animal Rights (McFarland, 1989. 0720119847). Dyer’s bibliography is conveniently sorted by year and subject, so essays on the ethical dimensions of diet are easily located. Magel’s guide to the literature of animal rights includes references to vegetarianism. Unfortunately, both of these volumes are out of print, but it’s well worth tracking down used copies. • A bit more accessible than Dyer and Magel is the annotated bibliography included as an appendix to a reprint of Henry S. Salt’s An- imal Rights Considered in Relation to Human Progress (Society for Animal Rights, Inc., 1980. 0960263209). The first part of the bibliography (pp. 137-169) compiled by Salt, lists pertinent works from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. The second part (pp. 179-218), compiled by Charles R. Magel, picks up where Salt left off and runs through to the 1970s. • John M. Kistler’s Animal Rights: A Subject Guide, Bibliography, and Internet Companion (Greenwood Press, 2000. 0313312311) chronologically takes up where Magel’s bibliography leaves off. Containing over 900 well annotated entries, Kistler’s book in- 84 ANIMALS ARE THE ISSUE: LIBRARY RESOURCES ON ANIMAL ISSUES

cludes dozens of references (easily accessed through the index) to literature pertinent to ethical vegetarianism. An essential resource.

HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM

• There’s no doubt that the preeminent resource is Howard Wil- liams’ nineteenth-century improbably subtitled The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh Eat- ing. Williams’ book is a history of ethical vegetarianism from antiquity through his own lifetime, and is especially helpful in locating lesser-known figures. This book has long been unavailable, but thankfully a reprint edition has appeared in 2003 from University of Illinois Press (0252028511). • Williams’ book offers only short quotations from the historical line of ethical vegetarians. Ethical Vegetarianism from Pythago- ras to Peter Singer, edited by Kerry S. Walters and Lisa Portmess (State University of New York Press, 1999. 0791440443) com- piles essential writings from the ancients through to contemporary writers. The book also contains an appendix that collects represen- tative voices from critics of ethical vegetarianism. • Colin Spencer’s Vegetarianism: A History (4 Wall, 8 Windows, 2nd edition, 2002. 1568582382) is the standard narrative history of vegetarianism. It contains very good discussions of various moral defenses of a meatless diet from ancient times to the present, east as well as west. This edition is a reprint of Spencer’s earlier The Heretic’s Feast. • The new edition of Spencer’s book is unfortunately titled, because it’s easily confused with Jon Gregerson’s Vegetarianism: A His- tory (Jain Publishing Co., 1995. 8075730302). Gregerson’s ac- count of vegetarianism through the ages is compact–perhaps too much so–but it still offers a decent introduction to anyone who lacks the time to plow through Spencer’s massive tome. • Daniel A. Dombrowski’s somewhat misnamed The Philosophy of Vegetarianism (University of Massachusetts Press, 1984. 0870234315) is a scholarly analysis of the ancient Greek defense of ethical vegetarianism. A groundbreaking book, it still remains the only sus- tained treatment of ancient vegetarianism. • A popular history of human mistreatment of animals that touches on ethical vegetarianism is Gerald Carson’s Men, Beasts, and Gods: A History of Cruelty and Kindness to Animals (Scribners, Kerry Walters 85

1972. 68413716X). Especially pertinent is Chapter 13, “Going the Whole Way: Vegetarianism,” pp. 127-135.

COMPREHENSIVE DEFENCES OF ETHICAL VEGETARIANISM

• An extremely popular overview of vegetarianism that has much to say about its moral dimensions is Erik Marcus’s Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, revised edition (McBooks Press, 2000. 0935526870). It may be the single best popular treatment of the morality of diet. • Mark Mathew Braunstein’s Radical Vegetarianism, 3rd edition (Panjandrum Books, 1988. 0915572370) devotes half of the book to a discussion of ethical vegetarianism. Braunstein’s approach is eclectic, but his primary argument seems to focus on a “karma” of diet: inflicting suffering and misery upon animals in order to eat them brutalizes the eater. • Dudley Giehl’s Vegetarianism: A Way of Life (Harper & Row, 1979. 0060115041) is an older but still invaluable general treatment of ethical vegetarianism. It may be the most comprehensive book on the subject, roaming from discussions of health and hy- giene to factory farming to ecological impacts of meat-eating to religious and literary responses to a meatless diet. The foreword by Isaac Bashevis Singer is a gem. • In his The Case for Vegetarianism: Philosophy for a Small Planet, John Lawrence Hill (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. 0847681378) offers an excellent survey of the major philosophical defenses of ethical vegetarianism. The book is clearly intended as a textbook, but happily lacks the dryness usually associated with textbooks. • The most profound overall treatment of ethical vegetarianism available is Michael Allen Fox’s Deep Vegetarianism (Temple University Press, 1999. 1566317057). Fox is a philosopher who early in his career made a name for himself defending animal ex- perimentation. Deep Vegetarianism is a testament to his change of heart and mind. Inspired by the eco-vision of deep ecology, Fox offers comprehensive and insightful arguments for and against ethical vegetarianism, ultimately arguing that vegetarianism needs to be viewed in the wider context of environmental concern. • Donna Maurer’s recent Vegetarianism: Movement or Moment? (Temple University Press, 2002. 156639936X) is a provocative sociological study that asks two questions: why do people become 86 ANIMALS ARE THE ISSUE: LIBRARY RESOURCES ON ANIMAL ISSUES

vegetarians, and why hasn’t the vegetarian movement attracted more national attention? The book contains interesting descrip- tions of the moral reasons people choose a meatless diet. • Anna Kingsford was a nineteenth century ethical vegetarianism whose voice has been nearly forgotten. Although one of her essays is included in Walters and Portmess, Ethical Vegetarianism from Pythagoras to Peter Singer, Kingsford’s work has been, by and large, unavailable for years. There’s one valuable exception, however: her Addresses and Essays on Vegetarianism (1912), reprinted by Kessinger Publishing Co. (1998. 0766101797). Although some of the essays are dated, others are still pertinent, especially “Lec- tures on Pure Diet,” “A Lecture on Food,” and “Evolution and Flesh-Eating.”

ETHICAL VEGETARIANISM AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Animal “rights” is something of a misnomer in this category, because many authors who believe that ascribing moral rights to animals is inap- propriate nonetheless argue that animals deserve moral consideration. Some authors argue that animals have “interests” which humans have a moral duty to consider, other authors argue that any creature capable of experiencing pain deserves to not have pain needlessly inflicted on it. The range varies widely, then, but what ties all the titles in this category together is their focus on animals (as opposed to humans or the environment) as the center of moral concern.

• By anyone’s reckoning, the two classics in this category are Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, revised edition (Ecco, 2001. 0060011572) and Tom Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights (University of Cali- fornia Press, 1983. 0520055601). Singer argues for vegetarianism on the basis of utilitarian interests, while Regan approaches the subject from the standpoint of rights. Singer’s book is written for a popular audience, Regan’s book is a bit more academic. Singer and Regan co-edited a still-timely collection, Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2nd edition (Prentice Hall, 1989. 0130368644). • Other standard anthologies dealing directly with the issue of animal rights and indirectly with ethical vegetarianism are Stanley and Roslind Godlovitch and John Harris, Animals, Men and Mor- als: An Inquiry into the Maltreatment of Nonhumans (Taplinger, 1972. 0800802721); Harlan B. Miller and William H. Williams, Kerry Walters 87

Ethics and Animals (Humana 1983. 0896030539); and Richard Knowles Morris and Michael Fox, On the Fifth Day: Animal Rights and Human Ethics (Acropolis Press, 1978. 0130368644). While the first of these was a groundbreaker when it appeared, it offers little that’s new today. The other two titles are pretty con- ventional treatments helpful to undergraduate students but not particularly interesting to the typical reader. • On the other hand, an excellent and provocative collection of essays is Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals edited by Josephine Donovan and Carol J. Adams (Continuum, 1996. 0826412599). The eight essays in the anthology are written from the standpoint of an ethics based on care rather than rights or interests. The book’s bibliography is excellent. • A charming and thoughtful collection of extended quotations on animal rights is John Wynne-Tyson’s The Extended Circle: A Commonplace Book of Animal Rights (Paragon House, 1989. 1557781486). Unfortunately, Wynne-Tyson fails to provide full bibliographic information for his entries. • Daniel A. Dombrowski’s Charles Hartshorne and the Metaphys- ics of Animal Rights (State University of New York Press, 1988. 0887067050) is an interesting discussion of animal rights from the standpoint of process philosophy as defended by the American philosopher Charles Hartshorne and the Anglo-American philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. The book is relentlessly academic, however. • A particularly good recent study is Matthew Scully’s Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy (St. Martin’s Press, 2002. 0312261470). Scully argues that even if it’s problematic to ascribe rights to animals, they at least deserve a modicum of respect from humans–hence the “call to mercy.” • Another recent book well worth adding to any ethical vegetarianism collection is Steven Wise’s Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals (Perseus Books Group, 2000. 0738204374). Although Wise doesn’t explicitly discuss vegetarianism, his argument for granting animals legal rights is an obvious theoretical tie-in. Especially helpful is Wise’s discussion of the thorny problem of granting rights to legal “things.” • Another argument for not treating animals as mere property, and hence without legal rights, is Gary Francione’s Animals, Property, and 88 ANIMALS ARE THE ISSUE: LIBRARY RESOURCES ON ANIMAL ISSUES

the Law (Temple University Press, 1995. 1566392845). Francione’s treatment is rather academic, but excellent nonetheless. • Along the same lines as Wise’s and Francione’s books is Joan Dunayer’s Animal Equality: Language and Liberation (Ryce Pub- lishing, 2001. 0970647557). Dunayer provocatively argues against human uniqueness, therefore leading to the moral conclusion that all animals, human as well as nonhuman, deserve equal moral consideration and equal legal protection (this does not, of course, nec- essarily mean equal treatment). • Henry S. Salt’s Animals’ Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress (Society for Animal Rights, Inc., 1980) has already been listed because of its bibliography, but it’s worth mentioning again here. First published in 1892, Salt’s book is a still pertinent brief for animal rights. Especially pertinent to ethical vegetarianism is Chapter IV, “The Slaughter of Animals for Food,” pp. 54-66.

ETHICAL VEGETARIANISM AND THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Many proponents of ethical vegetarianism base their cases upon the horrible suffering inflicted upon animals in so-called “factory farms” where chickens, cows, hogs, and other food animals are huddled into tiny living spaces, force-fed with chemically laden food, frequently sur- gically altered in order to maximize “efficiency” (cauterization of beaks or amputation of teats), and in general subjected to a life of misery in order to maximize production and minimize overhead. Some critics of factory farms are willing to accept meat-eating if the farms are abol- ished and food animals are free-ranged and slaughtered mercifully. Oth- ers, however, insist that there’s no way to “humanely” slaughter another living creature.

• A groundbreaking exposé of factory farming is Ruth Harrison’s Animal Machines (Stuart [London], 1964. No ISBN). Although somewhat dated and devoted exclusively to a consideration of British factory farms, Harrison’s book raises moral issues that re- main pertinent today and which have been revisited by subsequent critics of factory farming. • Jim Mason’s and Peter Singer’s Animal Factories, revised ed. (Harmony Books, 1990. 0517577518) is the best of the factory farm exposés. In addition to chronicling the horrible abuses of animals, the book also underscores the danger to human health posed Kerry Walters 89

by the chemical-laden meat and animal products churned out by factory farms. Chapters 8 and 9, which explicitly discuss the ethical problems of factory farms as well as moral alternatives to them, are particularly helpful. The book contains many photographs and diagrams. • A book that has generated much controversy since its appearance is Charles Patterson’s Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust (Lantern Books, 2002. 193005199). Patterson’s thesis is that the systematic slaughter of animals is such a part of our everyday life that we fail to notice the bloody holocaust it is. He argues that violence begets violence, and our willingness to butcher animals ratchets up our indifference to the abuse of humans. Needless to say, Patterson’s comparison of animal slaughter to Nazi genocide has offended many. But his point isn’t to trivialize the horror of the Jewish holocaust so much as to use it to draw attention to the suffering of food animals. • What Upton Sinclair did fictionally in The Jungle, Gail Eisnitz documents in Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Ne- glect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the US Meat Industry (Pro- metheus Books, 1997. 1573921661). The title says it all: Eisnitz is concerned to draw connections between corporate fidelity to the bottom line and cost-saving but savagely inhumane treatment of food animals. She also documents the treat to human health that arises from unsanitary slaughter practices.

The following three titles could just as easily be classified under “Ethical Vegetarianism in Relation to Human and Ecological Con- cerns.” I list them here, however, because their starting point is the food industry.

• Karen Davis focuses specifically upon the poultry and egg industries in her Poisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry (Book Publishing Co., 1996. 1570670323). Davis provides a technical analysis of the suffering inflicted on poultry as well as the contamination and health risks of eating factory-farmed poultry and eggs. • The iconoclastic Jeremy Rifkin’s Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (Dutton, 1992. 0525934200) is a readable and informative study of the opportunity costs of the beef industry-pollution, unhealthy meat, misuse of grains. Most important, Rifkin 90 ANIMALS ARE THE ISSUE: LIBRARY RESOURCES ON ANIMAL ISSUES

reflects on what he calls the “psychology of beef,” asking why it is that beef as food is so appealing to U.S. consumers. • Howard F. Lyman and Glen Merzer created a furor among the meat industry when they published Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat (Touchstone, 2001. 0684854465). This is the book that led to the lawsuit against Lyman and Oprah Winfrey. Lyman writes of the abuse of cattle and the public health menace of chemical-tainted beef. The book is particularly valuable because it nicely chronicles the extraordinary lobbying power of the U.S. meat industry.

ETHICAL VEGETARIANISM IN RELATION TO HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS

One major characteristic that distinguishes contemporary from past defenses of ethical vegetarianism is the emphasis on what might be called “global” concerns. Present-day treatments tend to see the choice of ethical vegetarianism as part and parcel of wider moral choices in- volving the environment, gender and ethnic relations, and world hunger.

• A classic in this genre–perhaps the classic–is Frances Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet, 20th anniversary edition (Ballantine Books, 1992. 0345321200). Lappe systematically argues that meat diets devastate the environment by encouraging soil-erosion, water de- pletion, and pollution, and that by feeding grain to cattle we are wasting protein. Eating meat, she concludes, is “like driving a Ca- dillac”–a flashy status symbol, but needless and, worse, wasteful. Lappe returns to the theme of a meat diet and world hunger in World Hunger: Twelve Myths, 2nd edition (Grove Press, 1998. 0802135919), co-authored with Joseph Collins and Peter Rossett. In the book the authors offer rebuttals to the twelve most common confusions about the causes of world hunger. The “like driving a Cadillac” theme is fully explored. • Equally important is Carol J. Adams’ groundbreaking The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (Continuum, 1995. 0826405134). Just as Peter Singer argued that “speciesism” is akin to racism and sexism, so Adams argues that the process of “absent-referencing” diminishes moral concern for animals just as it does for women. An absolute must in any collection of ethical vegetarianism. Also of importance are Adams’ collected essays in Kerry Walters 91

Neither Man Nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals (Continuum, 1994. 082640670X) as well as her recent and witty Living Among Meateaters (Three Rivers Press, 2001. 0609807439) which argues that carnivores are blocked vegetarians who suffer from a hole in their conscience. • Martin Rowe’s anthology, entitled The Way of Compassion: Vege- tarianism, Animal Advocacy and Social Justice (Stealth Technolo- gies, Inc., 2000. 0966405609), offers essays that deal with the social and moral consequences of meat-eating. One or two of the articles are just silly (such as Rynn Berry’s attempt to show that Hitler wasn’t really a vegetarian). But most are quite worth read- ing. • Jon Wynne-Tyson’s Food for a Future: How World Hunger Could Be Ended by the Twenty-First Century (HarperCollins, 1989. 081081532X) is a passionate but rational argument for re-distrib- uting to humans the colossal amounts of grain used to currently feed food animals. Along with Frances Moore Lappe, Wynne- Tyson argues that hunger is an easily solvable problem: quit wasting valuable resources on raising food animals who give back only a small portion of the protein required to feed them. • Finally, Kathryn Paxton George’s Animal, Vegetable, or Woman? A Feminist Critique of Ethical Vegetarianism (State University of New York Press, 2000. 0791446875) deserves mentioning here. George argues against ethical vegetarianism on the grounds that it interferes with moral concern for women. This claim runs counter to the arguments of, for example, Carol J. Adams. But in making her case, George frequently provides good summaries of various models of ethical vegetarianism.