Two Very Different Books About Meat

This week I had the pleasure of reading two very different books about meat. The first was Howard Lyman's Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth From the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat. I'd heard about this book for years, in fact, Howard Lyman was kind enough to write the blurb on the back of my first cookbook. So when I saw a copy in a used bookstore, I grabbed it and ripped through it in a day and a half.

I found myself really liking and admiring the guy. It takes guts to walk away from a life as a Montana cattle rancher and become a vegan activist. And the book offered just what it promised: straight talk and plenty of useful information.

Several days later I happened to see a copy of Betty Fussell's new book, Raising Steaks, about America's love affair with beef. I adored her book about corn, which brings together politics and mythology with a heartfelt appreciation for the food. With Lyman's book fresh in my mind, I grabbed this one.

Fussell does a wonderful job of bring together cowboy lore with a discussion of food safety and the economics of raising beef. She also makes a point to draw a connection between husbandry practices and flavor every step of the way.

The hardest things to reconcile, reading the 2 books so closely together, were their different takes on the impact of grazing cattle on public land. Lyman details the terrible toll that subsidized grazing takes on topsoil, streams and native plants. Fussell focuses mainly on smaller scale ranchers, many of whom are deeply concerned with sustainability, taking good care of the grass so their cows can continue to graze on it in the future.

I think we need both of these voices if we're going to develop a more enlightened relationship with the animals we raise for food. Being vegetarian or vegan is one way of addressing the issue, but there are plenty of wise, intelligent people who are never going to stop eating meat, and plenty of vegetarians who still eat poorly, and even unsustainably. For those folks who are going to continue to eat meat, it makes sense to pay attention to the quality of the product, because really good meat just doesn't come from industrial feedlots.