Introduction: Serving a Side of Truth

Food is part of the emotional fabric of American life. We celebrate at restaurants and socialize with friends over lunch. However, what we are eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner represents today’s global health and environmental crises. The Meaty Truth is here to serve us a side of the truth.

Our health has turned to sh!t as America is rapidly becoming the home of the sick and obese! About half of the illnesses claiming American lives are all related to what we eat. The USDA knowingly allows toxins such as arsenic, bleach, pus, and feces into our meat and dairy products. The crap fed to children in schools is a national tragedy. We are reaching the end of the antibiotic era and the rise of pandemic diseases is around the corner. Filthy, disease-breeding factory farms that churn out twenty-seven billion animals per year rely on consumer ignorance to keep pumping out meat and dairy products that are poisoning us and our environment.

Our heavily meat and dairy diets are decimating our entire ecosystem. Half the Amazon is expected to be gone forever by 2030. Dead zones are expanding so rapidly that they are predicted to entirely wipe out fisheries by 2048. Imagine oceans without fish. This is where we are heading. Our vital resources are running so low that experts predict the next world wars will be over access to water and food resources.

Fortunately, a healthy food movement is sweeping across America. The food system of our future is predominately whole grain, plant-powered food. While we were raised to believe that milk and meat are essential and vital components to a healthy diet, studies from around the world, including prestigious universities Harvard and Cornell, show that meat and dairy in no way constitute any part of a healthy diet. The truth is meat and dairy products are the primary cause for our alarming rise in chronic health problems and disease.

We understand that for some of you this seems crazy. Think about this: until 1863, slavery and the separation of people of different colors was an accepted practice in society. The ability to buy a human being based on race was not questioned and even supported by our government. In the early 1900s, women were to be seen and not heard. Doctors considered women too fragile to handle everyday pressures, and women were secondary members of society without a voice. In the 1940s and 50s, smoking cigarettes was recommended by doctors as an acceptable way to relax, open our lungs, and improve overall health. Smoking was sophisticated, even portrayed as sexy, and above all was just something everyone did, unquestionably. Over time, however, we challenged our assumptions and realized that these socially entrenched practices we believed to be okay were unhealthy and, in some cases, deplorable. We think drinking pus, eating animal sh!t, and fighting over clean water is simply unacceptable. This is happening in America every day. The time for change is now.

Right now we are heading down a path of destruction and disease. But, dear reader, you are taking the first step toward a happier, healthier, and more vibrant life by reading this book. We will set the record straight and let the truth be told. By the end of this book you will understand that what is at the end of your fork is more powerful than anything in a pill bottle and more effective at preserving the environment than an energy-saving lightbulb or Prius.