It takes a village to write a book, and I wouldn’t have been able to write Meathooked if it wasn’t for the help of my “village” (which happens to stretch across the globe). I’m particularly grateful to all the scientists who helped me understand the nuances of their academic fields and who commented on my work: Carol J. Adams, Linda Bartoshuk, Brock Bastian, Grégory Bayle, Gary Beauchamp, Paul Breslin, Henry Bunn, T. Colin Campbell, Temple Grandin, Arnold van Huis, Gáspár Jékely, Edward Mills, Stéphane Péan, Stephen Simpson, and Richard Wrangham. Thank you Mark Post and Anon van Essen: seeing meat grow in your Maastricht lab was an unforgettable experience. Briana Pobiner: I never would have thought I’d hold a million-year-old elephant bone in my hand—thank you. For their scholarly advice, I’m also indebted to Leslie C. Aiello, Nikos Alexandratos, Neal Barnard, Adam Drewnowski, Robert Eisenman, Daniel Fessler, Hal Herzog, Urban Jonsson, R. S. Khare, Joe Millward, Marion Nestle, Chris Otter, David Penny, Anthony Podberscek, Rashmi Sinha, Martin Smith, Erik Sperling, Brian Wansink, Yunxiang Yan, and Ryan Zarychanski. Over the years that it took to write this book, I’ve met many fascinating people, whom I wanted to thank for letting me catch a glimpse of their meat-related worlds and for the opportunity to discuss the past and the future of humanity’s meat addiction: Andras Forgacs, Morgaine Gaye, Ifor Humphreys, Kate Jacoby, and Richard Landau (and big thanks for the delicious food), Scott Jurek, Evelyn Kimber, Niko Koffeman, Jaap Korteweg, and Paul Bom (please bring Vegetarian Butcher to France), Kristin Lajeunesse, Howard Lyman, Ingrid Newkirk, Bastien Rabastens, Bill Roenigk, Hanni Rützler, Clément Scellier, Peter Singer, and Ajath Anjanappa—thank you for being my guide to the food scene of Bengaluru.
For relentlessly honing my science-writing skills (by making me cut and edit and cut some more), I’d like to thank Pooh Shapiro of the Washington Post. Also a big “thank-you” to all the editors at Polityka, Gazeta Wyborcza, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, New Scientist, and The Atlantic: over the years, you have helped me become a better writer. And in particular I wanted to thank Stephen Northfield, the former foreign editor of The Globe and Mail, who back in 2009 took a chance on me and assigned me my first-ever feature article in English.
This book wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for my amazing agent Martha Magor Webb: thank you for all your hard work, for all the advice and encouragement. Alex Littlefield: your enthusiasm made it so much easier for me to research and write Meathooked—thank you for being such a great editor. For all their hard work on the manuscript and for their helpful comments, I want to thank my editors Dan Gerstle and Brandon Proia: you’ve made this book so much better. Katie Haigler, Kate Mueller, Melissa Raymond, Melissa Veronesi, and the whole team at Basic Books—without you Meathooked wouldn’t exist.
A big thank-you goes also to my family, and to my mom in particular, for helping take care of my baby daughter so that I could write (and so that I could go on holidays and rest after all the writing). To my dad, for insisting that I learn English. To my mother-in-law, for coming over to help in times of need. To my friends, who over board games and in sandboxes helped me take a break from the fascinating but challenging world of meat eating. Last but definitely not least, to my husband, Maciej, who has helped me believe that, yes, writing is a proper career, and who has relentlessly supported me over the years (and who has patiently dealt with all the writer drama). And to my daughter, Ellen—because she is a ray of sunshine that can brighten the cloudiest of days.