At this writing (December 2022), the book is out of print. I’m working on a revision.
Buy the book (or not; makes no-never-mind to me because I don't earn any money from its sales):
From a colonial carnivore’s paradise to the urban meat-making factories of the nineteenth century to the hyperefficient packing plants of the late twentieth century. From Swift and Armour to Tyson, Cargill, and ConAgra. From the cattle bonanza of the 1880s to modern feedlots. From agribusiness to today’s “local” meat suppliers and organic countercuisine.
Along the way, it explains how Americans’ carnivorous demands shaped urban landscapes, midwestern prairies, and western ranges. How/when/why the American way of meat shifted from source of pride to axis of controversy.
________
If you've a mind, take a gander at this SHORT explanation of how the meat book found me. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
(It’s an interesting historical record of my state of mind and brain c. early autumn 2006. Weird days indeed, friends. [And chops to the digital age for making that piece of the historical record possible and for preserving it.])
Even better, read the entire Introduction of the book here. (Neato keeno, eh?)
We wrote a dopey song about the book. It's awful!
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS. Readers rock. So do writers. You rock, I rock, we all rock.
Your prize for reading this far, a bit from 2013:
“Author, recently finished with massive, seven-year project and trying to unwind, giggles at self, somewhat maniacally, on her own blog. [I believe commas in previous are correct. I dread the day when complex comma-use expires, dodo-like, crushed by competitors in a tumultuous language ecosystem.]
(And the song? Ridiculous, right? But we had fun, folks, we had fun.)