I admit I was hesitant to read this. I thought it would be like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in that it would tell me all these horrible things that I couldn't do anything about. But I eventually saw that film and read this book and I'm glad I did. I was right. They both do tell you many depressing things about the state of affairs that there's little one person can counteract. But I also think this kind of knowledge is a good thing. If there's nothing else we can do, we can vote. We can buy more florescent bulbs and we can quit eating fast food (yes, I read Fast Food Nation as well). This book, however, is so well written and so eye-opening when it comes to the appreciation of food that you'll find yourself, if not getting all your food right from a farm, at least appreciating good food more. That's never a bad thing. It also takes the moral high ground away from your friends who are vegetarians (a completely vegetarian populace would be unsustainable) and who only shop at Whole foods (a piece farm-raised New Zealand beef uses way more carbon to get to you than local). You'll certainly cut back on red meat, though, after you know what's in it (but Fast Food Nation had already done that for me).
