Kim’s Story
Best Books on Veganism: Hungry Beautiful Animals by Matthew Halteman, a Book Club
by Kim Sujovolsky
It is rare that after 12 years of being vegan I come across a book on veganism that surprises me with such a jolt that I find myself dedicating not one post and podcast episode to it but two.
If you missed last week's episode of the podcast I sat down to have the most thrilling chat with its author, Matthew Halteman, professor of philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and fellow in the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, UK, and although he articulates the essence of this book much better than I ever could, I wanted to do what we do with the books we find to be incredibly inspiring, to beg the people that sit in a circle in our figurative living room, all clutching their own paper gems to discuss, and beg them to make this the next book club pick. The great news is that when we have a book club episode in the More Plants Podcast, we have no one to convince, other than all our listeners when I say, whether you're a new vegan, veg curious, a seasoned vegan, or someone grappling with the ethics of eating animals, you must get this book, and I'll share why in today's post and episode.
Hungry Beautiful Animals takes us on an unexpected journey through the issues surrounding animal rights, human rights, environmental protection and all the physical and emotional benefits of going vegan, in a way that is both inspiring for new vegans, but also a bit of a tugging of the ears for those of us who have been advocating for animals for many years. Matt lets go of the usual fear tactics, shame, blame and guilt that does little to move the needle for most people, and instead shows us how although the why and the facts are incredibly important and are also included within the pages of the book, it's within our own psyches, our own internal processes, our own belief systems and ethics, where a new stance on making this change can be born, and where a new way of doing advocacy can flourish.
You have to give credit to a book that goes through the tough issues surrounding our food systems and that stems from philosophy and ethics, in a voice so articulate, knowledgeable and filled with wit its pages keep you glued, laughing out loud, eyes watery and nose sniffling at times, nodding profusely, all in one go. It felt like the good old days in which you'd accidentally run into your favorite college professor at the corner bar in your college town, a crowd of students quickly gathering around, the conversation so interesting you suddenly look up to the flickering of lights after last call. The perfect combination of knowledge, analysis of large scale issues, but still, you have a beer in your hand, and it feels THAT friendly.
Matt takes us through his own journey, from coming from a family of farmers, being a college, meat-loving athlete, and feeling like he'd be the last human being on Earth to ever give up his steak, and yet, encountering that moment all vegans reach, in which the values you have, the pacifist identity you hold and the way you eat have to sit down at a roundtable and look each other in the eyes for the first time.
The book guides us through the issues regarding animal agriculture, from the treatment of animals to land and water use, the enormous amounts of waste produced by these industries, a threat to both our health and that of the planet, not to mention, what to me is one of the strongest and least talked about arguments for veganism, the effects of animal farming on human rights (workers rights, the effects on neighboring communities and the families of workers, and more).
It also includes something most books on veganism lack, and that is not only an uplifting dose of "yes you can do this" but also the acknowledgement of how hard it is to go against the grain, mostly because of our deep need for belonging and how food is so linked to our social connections.
Hungry Beautiful Animals addresses the many questions, rebuttals and excuses and no-can-do's that are as human as it gets, and still, Matthew shows us, in the way only an ethics professor can, that everything we need to to dare to make this change is already within us. As it happened in my own journey, you quickly discover you were always (as Matt calls it) a "vegan in waiting". Still to this day, 12 years into my own decision to go vegan, I wonder what took me so long. I often ask myself if I hadn't found the first book on veganism I found years ago, or if I hadn't had a Netflix subscription and watched the documentaries that put me face to face with the suffering of animals, if I'd be vegan today or if on the other hand I'd be unaware I'd taken the blue pill and returned to life with my own set of value blinders on. This book put into writing how there was just no way there was ever an adult version of myself that wasn't on this path. I've felt guilt and regretted not making this choice sooner many times throughout these 12 years and I finally now realize that I was always one second, one moment, one image, one sentence, one glimpse of the word vegan on a menu away from the breadcrumb path into a house made out of vegan candy. Matt helps you do just that through the pages of this book, the process of inner discovery to find the parts of you that are already eager and waiting, and he gives you the tools to tame all the doubts and the musts and the can't-s and the what about Thanksgiving-s, until you find the first crumb and then the second.
As a long time vegan it also shows you with great respect and humility how we often get things wrong as a movement. How we let ourselves sink into how vegans are portrayed in the media and in the many punchlines at dinner tables across the world, and we play into this by feeling misunderstood, by isolating the movement into an "only we get it" crowd that often gives others the impression that only certain members are allowed. The perfect card-carrying vegans, the angry or heartbroken vegans, when in fact so many of the vegans I know are the most joyful and generous bunch. There's no wonder people encounter either the facts of animal agriculture or their own mixed feelings about eating animals, they might even find the crumb trail in the woods, and still all they can see is the witch waiting behind the Oreo fence, oven turned on and waiting. This is without a doubt what I loved most about this book, the imagination of a new vegan future, of a way to see the vegan movement, but most of all, as a way to see each person's journey through this transition. Less identity based and all about the wooing, the joy, the aspiring, the excitement, the adventure, the curiosity and the trying. How we can go from seeing this label of "vegan" as a perfect achievable identity that we conquer in a no-mistakes-made straight and paved road, and we miss the chance of seeing it how it should be seen, as a becoming, a going vegan, all of us as aspiring vegans (yes also you who have been vegan for 20 years). A step by step process where it's the steps where all the interesting things happen.
The book feels both like an in-depth conversation with someone who deeply understands philosophy (and in spite of this is still able to give it to you in the language of us mere mortals) and a picture of some of our own inner dialogues on paper.
The ones we have within ourselves whenever we make a choice and we see different sides to it. If you've ever enjoyed Richard Schwartz books No Bad Parts or Internal Family Systems, you'll get a kick out of how Matt brings complex psychological systems into the realm of veganism and the battles within ourselves when we're facing something we're kind of ready to see and at the brink of getting ready to do. This even applies to long time vegans and how they deal with loving their people, who probably share all their same values but haven't made the choice to be vegan themselves. We can finally pull up a chair for our intellect and thoughts, our feelings and emotions, our beliefs, our judgements, our negativity, our politics and our value systems, our judgemental parts, our understanding and generous parts, and they can all have a proper give and take chat.
You know how much I love to read (and to write), so I know you're going to ask me about the writing in this book. This book is the opposite of dry. What you get is that witty banter of that college professor in the pub making you smile with every turn of phrase. I found myself highlighting so many passages just out of my sheer love for the written word, and in case you need a comp (publishing lingo for something you may have already read to compare it to), I kept going back to an imaginary world in which the wittiest writer I know Mary Karr (who you know is my favorite memoirist of all time), and the great Jonathan Saffran Foer are having a post meal drink and hashing out the future of our planet, only to open the door to Dave Eggers, never afraid of a good word play that almost feels melodic. Here lies a new version of all those pen magicians on the page, only Matt is just one person, so he gets triple the credit in my book.
The book also includes, as all propelling change makers do, a new view of the practical and of the motivation needed to make this change. A way to see the process so that it's all about the how of setting goals as opposed to which goals, and about customizing the journey. For this, I had to include a brief quote from the "Aspiration" chapter, chapter 7:
"Instead of framing our individual efforts to go vegan unrealistically in terms of the achievement of a one-size-fits-all state of being (a "cruelty-free" identity), we'll envision going vegan as a liberating journey of becoming that unfolds uniquely for every person."
Not only a customized journey of becoming vegan, but a stance where no matter who you are or what makes you tick, your place in this movement isn't only important but necessary:
"Are you strong and silent? Bold and brash? Sleek and sporty? Stacking cash? Loosey-goosey? Buttoned up? Churchy? Skeptic? LEGO nut? Corporate normie? Wheatgrass pro? Henny sipper? Nat Light Bro?Garth and Trisha? Jay and Bey? Always here for it? Just don't Play? Partnered? Solo? Anti-marriage? Purple neon undercarriage? F-150? Beach all day? Slow foodie? Fast foodie? Don't wish to say? Perfect! Because whoever you are and however chill or zazzy your flow, there are many others on your wavelength who will need to feel seen and heard and loved for who they are before they can dare to imagine who they could be going vegan."
Most refreshing of all, is Matt's oh-so-obvious-but-invisible-to-most realization that it is only in veganism that we hold such extreme black and white thinking or all or nothing thinking:
"We're usually comfortable both claiming the aspiration and acknowledging the need to allow ourselves generous breathing room for things to go well, badly or just okay as circumstances allow. Except maybe in our most self-loathing moments, we typically don't say "I just got angry. Guess I'm not a Buddhist after all." Or "I don't always love my enemies. So much for following Jesus". Or "I really messed up with my kid. F**k parenting forever".
Still, with all its generosity in helping us understand how we are all just doing our best, it propels you to take even more action, while still doing it from a place of joy for the process in and of itself, the definition of intrinsic motivation (the one that will keep us on any path that requires a little work and effort, without the feeling that you're working for it at all). The book comes to an end with conversations on discipline, the beauty and reach of repeated daily actions, of philosophy in practice, and of daily spiritual practice (regardless of your spiritual inclinations).
I would be skipping out on a huge dose of joy in this book without mentioning that all of this insight comes woven tightly with personal stories from Matt's life. Gus, the bulldog that brought the vegan lightning bolt straight through the heart, Susan, his amazing wife and moral catalyst extraordinaire, the friends and colleagues that have inspired him, and everything from his childhood in farms, to the dragging yourself through runs on treadmills, making everything relatable and bringing it close to home. He often reframes going vegan into making the process as fun and dazzling as reaching for that second bite of tiramisu, and so of course, a recipe for a perfect vegan tiramisu is waiting for you before you close the back cover of the book, my favorite dessert on Earth.
I could write 5 posts about everything I love about this book and Matthew Halteman's writing, but I'll leave you with last week's conversation with the author here, and one last quote which I feel sums up the essence of this book:
"This experience lives beyond description. Joy is the state of being in which we prepare to undergo it and return from it elated, invigorated for continued service. I can't tell you about your joy. That's for you to know and for the world to find out. I can tell you that going vegan, if not by far the only source of my joy, has been one of the most abundant contributors, catalyzing daily the elevating chemistry that thins the veil and pulls me into everything's embrace, within and without. What could be more uplifting more often than a way of life that normalizes acts of intentional caring from moment to modest moment - at the table, at the dresser, in the neighborhood, in the yard - even as it attunes us for service to the fullest of time? Not even Taylor Swift. Today's world would have us believe that going vegan is a journey into abstention, deprivation, self-judgement, exclusion, scarcity. But we know better now".
Please get yourself a copy of Hungry Beautiful Animals: The Joyful Case for Going Vegan by Matthew Halteman, get it for friends and family this Holiday Season, and be prepared for a whole new way to see this choice, of protecting our fellow beings in whatever way we can.
