Vet Salus Book Review: Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat: Nicolette Niman
This title of this book initially suggests a bias that might infer a narrow perspective, but the case presented within is very well researched and fully referenced. The background of the author is of interest, in that she was formerly a lawyer and strict vegetarian, working primarily on anti-meat causes. Her more expansive reading around the subject, and marriage to a rancher, led to a fuller understanding of the complexities and roles that farm animals play in food production systems. The author has thus demonstrated that she is able to change her mind and one suspects this book, now presented in a revised and updated version, is in part a result of her journey.
The opening chapters provide a valuable summary of the science background behind beef’s contribution to climate change; the need to defend beef. The rather selective arguments that have resulted in so much criticism of beef production are presented and then expanded into a fuller, science based explanation. The science behind methane versus carbon dioxide, as well as the often ignored contribution of the carbon sequestration contribution of farming are well summarised. The author also makes the point that the simplistic benchmarking of carbon dioxide equivalents per kilogram of product, taking no account of the nutritional contribution of that product, is fundamentally flawed. If you read nothing else than the first five chapters of this book I suspect you will emerge better informed.
However the book expands into a wider perspective to include chapters on the role of people in agriculture and the health aspects of eating beef. Much of the information is presented with a strong first world/USA bias, which is not surprising given the author’s background. But she is critical of many aspects of intensive ranching, arguing in favour of pasture based beef production, while also presenting background on the environmental impact of soya beans. On many occasions she provides well balanced, carefully evaluated arguments; this is not the one eyed defence of beef suggested by the title.
This is an easy read, a great introduction to a complex and controversial subject. While the author writes with a familiar, relaxed style, the complexity of the subject, and her research, is fully supported by the forty pages of notes and references with which the book concludes.
The book is well worth adding to your reading list, if you are at all interested in carbon, climate change and sustainable farming. Indeed it deserves to be read by both sides of the debate as it presents a lot of information in a very approachable format. The book provides more than science, being peppered with interesting quotes and biographical backgrounds; fully supporting two quotes concluding chapter one:
“Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
- Albert Einstein
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”
- H. L. Mencken
Defending beef is well worth reading.
Lewis Griffiths, December 2021
Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat by Nicolette Niman. Published by Chelsea Green Publishing UK, 2021
ISBN: 978-1645020141
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