The Thinking Reed has been reviewing Michael Pollen’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma here and again today, here.

It’s a thought provoking read, but a bit long in the tooth in places. I agree with Pollen that eating meat is not unethical, though Mathew Scully who wrote Dominion makes a powerful argument against it.
We don’t need to eat meat. So we are essentially creating life to kill it.

I think factory farms are the evil in this business and have become what a friend of mine labeled an “opportunivore”. I like the sound of that.

I refuse to buy meat unless I know it’s origins. However there is nothing worse than a picky house guest. If you want to serve meat and give me the honor of inviting me over, I’ll eat it!! So feel free to invite me over.

[TANGENT: My personal ethics have not pushed me to not buy dairy/eggs/leather-yet. Give me time. Megan McArdle has numerous good posts on the subject and the comments can be a good read too. "Can you harangue someone into going vegan?" Likely not, but those little ideas do take a hold after a bit. I watched one of the movies after reading Skully's book. You know, those factory farm movies. Ugh. That stopped me cold. I suspect with more time and thought the dairy/eggs/leather will no longer be bought either.]

Both books and Thinking Read’s thoughts are thought provoking and I find it a pretty positive sign in the universe that they are getting good press and a lot of folks are reading them.

UPDATE: It’s Scully not Skully. Since corrected.