Meatonomics: How the Rigged Economics of Meat and Dairy Make You Consume Too Much and How to Eat Better, Live Longer, and Spend Sma

Few consumers are aware of the economic forces behind the production of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy. Yet omnivore and herbivore alike, the forces of meatonomics affect us in many ways.

Most importantly, we've lost the ability to decide for ourselves what - and how much - to eat. Those decisions are made for us by animal food producers who control our buying choices with artificially-low prices, misleading messaging, and heavy control over legislation and regulation. Learn how and why they do it and how you can respond.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Meatonomics provides vital insight into how the economics of animal food production influence our spending, eating, health, prosperity, and longevity

Meatonomics is the first book to add up the huge "externalized" costs that the animal food system imposes on taxpayers, animals and the environment, and it finds these costs total about $414 billion yearly. With yearly retail sales of around $250 billion, that means that for every $1 of product they sell, meat and dairy producers impose almost $2 in hidden costs on the rest of us. But if producers were forced to internalize these costs, a $4 Big Mac would cost about $11.

"In this provocative and persuasive work, veganism advocate Simon argues for eating less meat and dairy (or giving it up altogether) as a means of fixing the broken American meat market, in which farmers regularly spend more than their animals' value, but still come out on top thanks to more than billion in annual subsidies. Simon wastes no time getting into explanations of serious economics and skillfully explains terms like 'externalities' for the general reader. As he questions the deep ties between America's meat industry and government regulators, readers will be hard-pressed not to wonder if something sinister is playing out in America's farms and grocery stores. The bulk of the book is devoted to illustrating the enormous gap between the actual price of meat and the true cost in terms of economics, the environment, and health. Even though the horrors of factory farming are well known, the specific practices discussed here will inspire renewed outrage. Although the author's largest suggestion for a 'recipe for change' is a stretch (a 50% federal excise tax on meat and poultry, dairy, eggs, and fish), this is a well-researched, passionately written book. Agent: Lindsay Edgecombe, Levine Greenberg Agency." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Meatonomics is the first book to fully explore and expose the rigged economics of the meat and dairy industries, and what this peculiar system means for our health, the environment, and billions of farm animals. The revelations are shocking.

Among other things, consumers have lost the ability to decide for ourselves what - and how much - to eat. Today those decisions are mostly made for us by big meat and dairy producers, who control our consumption choices with artificially-low prices, misleading messaging, and heavy influence over legislation and regulation.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Meatonomics provides vital insight into how the economics of animal food production influence consumers' eating, spending, health, prosperity, and longevity. The book also proposes concrete changes in personal behavior and tax policy that will help consumers save money, lose weight, boost their health, protect animals and the planet from abuse, and preserve rural communities in the United States and elsewhere.

According to the conventional wisdom, factors like taste, dietary beliefs, and cultural traditions drive our decisions to buy animal foods. But the reality is that price plays a huge role in our eating choices as well. The alarming result of consumers watching their pocketbooks so carefully is that meat producers, who work hard to keep prices artificially low, are heavily responsible for driving demand.

The is the first book to fully explore the murky economics underlying animal food production. And its revelations are shocking. Like Freakonomics, it demonstrates how seemingly bizarre economic forces impact our everyday lives--how we're all subject to incentives no matter how counter-intuitive they may appear.

A persuasive manifesto, Meatonomics, proposes concrete changes in social and tax policy that will help consumers save money, lose weight, improve health, and protect animals and the planet from abuse.

David Robinson Simon is a prominent advocate for sustainable consumption and frequently speaks at conferences, civic groups, and legislative bodies in and around Orange County, CA. As the founder of both the public-speaking club Verbal Vegans and the social networking group Orange County Vegan Drinks, he's one of the better-known spokespersons for veganism in Southern California.