Food Choice and Sustainability: Why Buying Local, Eating Less Meat, and Taking Baby Steps Won't Work Hardcover – November 19, 2013

If you are not yet aware, this book is essentially saying that unless you become a vegan you are in denial about the dire situation on the planet. The information in this book is solid in research and compassionate in viewpoint. I do think it is worth reading. However, beware that the tone is incredibly self-righteous. I wish I felt the author’s love of the planet more than his dogmatic assurance that he “knows” he has the ultimate correct view. I really had to separate the aggression of tone from the actual meaningful information presented.

Very in depth with a lot of research to back up every point. Please read, it will change your perspective on the planet and what we are doing. I have read a lot of books on the subject and I keep coming back to this one as the clearest, most in depth book.

This book is very informative and has provided helpful insights into the field. A great read if you are looking to expand your knowledge of agricultural impacts.I think the book could have been strengthened through empowering the reader and other environmental advocates. I disagree with the author that "...the public is generally apathetic and misguided". From my experience, people are unaware of agricultural impacts, but many are open to change upon receiving education (perhaps Dr. Oppenlander has changed his views on this over time though). From a psychological standpoint, readers are also more likely to propagate change if they feel empowered to do so, instead of feeling helpless and berated.I also think that the book is overly harsh on environmental/climate activists like Bill McKibben and Al Gore. The book alludes that these activists have been a disservice to the climate movement by their "conspicuous oversight" of the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. In reality, I think that they were not aware of the impacts (just as I was not, until a few years ago). People are capable of learning and changing. Al Gore demonstrates this, as he went vegan in 2013 [...].All in all, awesome book. I hope the next brings greater positivity to the table to further amplify the impact. :)

Comfortably Unaware was also a well researched and eye opening book, but Food Choice and Sustainability is the book Al Gore should have written. Dr. Oppenlander goes into the consequences of our food choices even deeper. He puts holes in the many myths permeating our media about how we should view our food choices and global warming, land use, water use, energy use, air pollution, etc. Once you read this book, you will immediately understand how and why the general public are misled. He shows that the science does not back up the baseless rhetoric of people like Michael Pollan who claims that grass fed cows are sustainable. I am not finished yet but cannot wait to finish it. My husband could not put it down and bought a pile to give to all our family members and friends. Richard uses scientific studies to back his statements and, in addition, he travels all over the world to observe just how food choice and sustainability play out in real life. Thank you Dr. Oppenlander for dispelling the myths we are fed but those who choose greed over health and environment. Excellent and impeccable work!

Please read this book, this simple to read and easy to understand explanation of how our food choices are the number one cause of climate change, water shortages, deforestation, destruction of the ocean, overuse of our land and destruction of our health is the most important and powerful book ever written on the subject matter. Every person on the planet should be required to read this so they fully understand how every bite of food they take reverberates around the world. In other words the food choices you make dramatically impact what happens to our forests, oceans, fresh drinking water, food supply, climate change. Before you read any other book read this one. It's hard to believe that this information is not available to every person when they grow up. This is the number one book I have ever read, more important than any other book I have ever read on the environment or health. This book is purely scientific but very easy to read. There's actually no bias in this book except the desire to save the planet.

My Dream - All Policy Makers, Spiritual Leaders, and Educators read this book. Our world community desperately needs to experience a massive and rapid paradigm shift with regards to food production and consumption. This book could be a catalyst for such a shift if it is read and its message carried far and wide by those in positions to initiate genuine change. There lies one of the great challenges, as Dr. Oppenlander points out, Educating The Educated. I will share this book and its message, as well as Comfortably Unaware and all of Dr. Oppenlander's Youtube appearances, with as many as I am able for as long as I am able.

This book has come quietly onto the scene and have become the textbook of understanding and the bible of the believers that the world is in danger from climate change and pollution, and we have a simple solution in a rapid, uncompromising change of culture towards a plant-based diet. In the end, eating salads is not radically dangerous, but the effects of the status quo of exorbitant animal agriculture are terrifying.

I'm a huge fan of this author, he doesn't sugar coat facts and gives it straight up.The read is easy but there are A LOT of facts. And good thing too. Because having specific facts and comparisons are much easier to track when they are conveniently in one book, such as this.The book is quite large and well worth your time.

A must read. Excellent

I was hoping to learn more about the climate crisis. It turns out the title was just click-bait. Which I guess was the purpose. After reading some of the more popular climate change novels written since then, I can say that there was nothing in here that wasn't covered by such documentaries as forks over knives, cowspiracy and seaspiracy, and the book the future we choose. For those just starting to read about climate change it is a good book to explain why going vegan (whole heartedly not partially) is imperative for our future. But it stops there. It was factual but not convincing. Some of the words he chose to describe climate change seemed off. For example core temperature instead of average temperature.

This book contains superb research on the connections between food choices and environmental issues. It very clearly and directly addresses the ways in which animal agriculture contributes more to environmental destruction than any industry and how a move away from animal use is essential to our maintaining an inhabitable planet. Oppenlander demonstrates the shortcomings of other sustainability movements, when they continue to advocate animal use, on the basis that growing animals for food is incredibly resource-intensive, no matter how it is done. Movements toward buying local or organic animal products, or grass-fed beef or backyard eggs are still, despite their claims, fundamentally unsustainable. Regardless of how they are raised, the water, land, and crop needs of animals are always far greater than those of plants. We simply cannot sustain a diet of animal products for the size of the human population.The issues addressed in this book are incredibly urgent. I cannot recommend enough that everyone reading this review not hesitate to buy this book and share its message.

El efecto destructivo para el planeta que tiene la cría de animales para consumo humano es algo oculto en las discusiones ecológicas o poco subrayado. Que la supervivencia de la especie humana dependa de que dejemos de comer a nuestros compañeros los animales está sobradamente documentado en este exhautivo estudio. No soy vegetariano pero es de conciencia seguir comiendo carnes.

Incredibly eye opening and mind blowing research. Being plant-based is not only about dramatically improving your health, it's about restoring the world's economy, saving the planet's ecosystems and most important, about saving the lives of billions of innocent animals tortured, killed and slaughtered every year all around the world.