So, you love your meat but can’t shake the nagging feeling that something needs to change? 

Hungry Beautiful Animals is here to help you navigate this inner conflict with compassion and humor.

No guilt trips, just a judgment-free exploration of how to find joy and balance in your diet (and beyond)!

Here’s what to expect from HUNGRY BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS…

Discover Your Why: Whether it's curiosity, concern, or a soft spot for animals, this book will help you find personal and motivating reasons to introduce more plants into your diet. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t involve shame or giving up your identity.)

Fresh Philosophical Nuggets: Get ready for some mind-bending, thought-provoking insights on our food system and how we really are what we eat. It might even make your mouth water for this plant-based tiramisu. (But do actually click that link because you need to try this recipe.)

Advocacy Tips Galore: Learn practical tips for incorporating more plant-based foods without feeling like you're losing out on life's pleasures. Think of it as expanding your culinary horizons, one veggie at a time.

Heartwarming Tales for Understanding Vegan Friends and Family: Discover inspiring stories that show how small changes can make a big difference. Even if these tales fail to warm your carnivorous heart, they’ll shed light on what makes vegan loved ones tick (or at least help you know your adversaries 😅).

Laughs Included: We know the vegan thing can feel a bit much, so this book finds plenty of humor in the journey. Matt never expected to go vegan (in a million years!), and let’s just say he’s happy to laugh at himself.

Community Vibes: Nothing makes it easier to find joy in something you thought you’d hate like supportive friends and family cheering you on. Count on plenty of field-tested advice for strengthening relationships and building community, even and especially with those who disagree.

About HUNGRY BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS

Perhaps you’ve looked at factory farming or climate change and thought, I should become a vegan. Maybe you succeeded and things are going beautifully. Maybe you’re trying, but it’s a slog. But very probably, like most people who’ve entertained this aspiration, you haven’t found the gumption to try. And that might feel deflating–even demoralizing. Why is it so hard to do something that we strongly suspect we should?

Well, in our world, roast turkey emanates gratitude, steak confers virility, shawarma is the center of the street party, and chicken soup represents a mother’s love. Against attachments this precious, simply swapping meat for plants won’t work. Animal products are just too woven into the shaping forces that make us who we are to imagine living joyfully without them! 

In Hungry Beautiful Animals, philosopher Matthew C. Halteman shows us how–despite all the forces arrayed against going vegan–we can create an abundant life for everyone without using animals for food. It might seem that moral rectitude or environmental judgment should do the trick, but they can’t. Going vegan must be about flourishing, for all life. Shame and blame don’t lead to flourishing. We must do it with joy, instead. 

Hungry Beautiful Animals is more than philosophy: it’s a book of action, of forgiveness, of love. Funny and wise, this book frees us joyfully to want what we already know we need.

Enjoy some vegan jokes.

Vegan Joys

From tips on trying out plant-based meals to learning about sustainable living, we’ve curated some piping hot resources to help you spread the joy of #GoingVegan.