Episode-29- TSP Rewind – Lierre Keith on The Vegetarian Myth
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Today is an episode of TSP Rewind, commercial free versions of past podcast episodes.
Today’s episode was originally, Episode-858- Lierre Keith on The Vegetarian Myth and originally aired on March 13, 2012.
The notes below are the original notes from that episode.
I am doing a rewind episode today because I once again have to drive to Granbury which to and back will take over two hours out of my day. This was due to incompetence at Tractor Supply!
Additionally we are behind on being ready for the Spring Workshop and I need to get caught up. We were rained out this weekend on a lot of stuff that needs doing outside. TSP will return to our usual programming tomorrow.
I first found Lierre Keith on Peak Moment TV being interviewed by Janaia Donaldson. She is the author of a book highly recommended by Robb Wolf called, “The Vegetarian Myth”. When I heard her explain many of the roots of why we are told veganism is so good for us I knew I had to bring her on TSP.
The Forward of The Vegetarian Myth explains, “We’ve been told that a vegetarian diet can feed the hungry, honor the animals, and save the planet. Lierre Keith believed in that plant-based diet and spent twenty years as a vegan. But in The Vegetarian Myth, she argues that we’ve been led astray–not by our longings for a just and sustainable world, but by our ignorance.
The truth is that agriculture is a relentless assault against the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. In service to annual grains, humans have devastated prairies and forests, driven countless species extinct, altered the climate, and destroyed the topsoil–the basis of life itself. Keith argues that if we are to save this planet, our food must be an act of profound and abiding repair: it must come from inside living communities, not be imposed across them.
Resources for Today’s Show
- Members Support Brigade
- TSP Gear Shop
- Join Our Forum
- LierreKeith.com
- Lierre on PeakMomentTV
- EatWild.com
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Listening to the show. Cottonseed oil? That rang a bell. At one point, decades ago, I was researching a male alternative to The Pill. The Chinese had a supplement that drastically dropped the sperm count of the men who consumed it. You guessed it: cottonseed oil.
Wait. You were actually expecting competence at Tractor Supply? Man! You are an optimist!
Actually my local store is amazing with a great staff of people and two wonderful managers. But I could not get the tanks I needed there fast enough. I don’t know if there is something in the water in Granbury but those people are worse than useless at that TSC. I mean I walked into the place and could have literally loaded up my tuck with shit and drove away if I was not an honest man. I could not find a person to talk to for at least 10 minutes. When I found someone it went down hill from there!
This is a leftist polemic. Progressives are often surprised and disoriented by previously denied facts once they become undeniable. They also revel in euphemisms and other “newspeak”. Keith was a vegan which is a left wing ideological diet promoting animal rights. Now she uses “vegetarian” to indict all people following a meatless diet. I’m a vegetarian and have been since I was sixteen and embraced certain spiritual practices. I eat no starches, that’s right, no beans, no grains, no potatoes, ad nauseum. I don’t expect my diet choices to bring down the forces of evil, but I have enjoyed a lifetime of excellent health (I’m over 70) and I believe it aids my meditation. I’m not superior to meat eaters, merely different.
My vegetarian society in Los Angeles was seized in the late ’80’s by “ethical vegans” who turned the meeting into holier than thou lectures on progressive politics. Most folks like me quit the group, we came to socialize not dramatize. Once again I feel that progressives are usurping my bailiwick. Vegetarians have led virtually all surveys as the healthiest demographic and vegans noisily rode that bandwagon. After veganism was differentiated from vegetarian in these surveys, vegans joined junk food eaters at the bottom of the health pyramid. Fact, check it.
I’m an anarchist, like Gandhi, and understand the desire to find common ground with progressives, but this woman has an iron clad mind and is a constant propagandist for the most severe blow hard zealots. Of course don’t throw out the baby with the bath water, but you could find a better source to voice these concerns.
Animal rights activists are the left wing version of right to lifers. They both choose to speak for those that can not speak for themselves. Would you expect wisdom from someone advocating the death of abortion doctors that changed their mind and decided taking aim at hospital administrators might be a better tactic? And don’t underestimate the attraction of eating meat. I knew many vegans that were secret meat eaters. I don’t care and don’t desire meat personally, but I am suspicious of idealoges experting in health, environment, agriculture or any other practical behavior.
Wow talk about perception bias, she came on this show and brought up zero leftist politics and you attack her character despite her well thought out and accurate message. This is what gives the left ammo, and Gandhi wasn’t an anarchist, he was an asshole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG2bKiRu48Y
You’re right, I have perception bias, which I clearly indicated. Yes, she can make good points, but so can someone else that isn’t indicting people, “vegetarians”, as exemplars of a problem. I remind you she identified as a vegan (leftist), not a vegetarian (who knows). The problem is using foods designed to survive war in Neolithic times as staples in the 21st century when we know better. And of course toxins. The starch scam drives industrial ag and demands chemicals. Why not interview activists who have been pointing this out for decades?
Someone spending 20 years propagandizing and encouraging folk to eat the official “vegan” diet has caused much illness and mental anguish. Sorry I don’t trust info from a dubious source even if it sounds well thought out and accurate. I also don’t think its profitable to worry about giving the left ammo, they always have a full magazine.
Yeah Gandhi was an asshole and he was an anarchist. Don’t believe everything you hear on youtube, read his books, (not books interpreting him). Most of your own philosophy can be found there. Einstein cheated on his wife, does that undermine relativity?
Anyway, enjoy your site and glad I could provide something to talk about.
On Gandhi, no he was not an anarchist as he was for a state, you can’t be both.
I defy you to refute one thing Stefan claimed about him as well, ONE just one, with a proof point.
And once again everything you said against Lierre is nothing more than ad hominem. I personally think that both veganism and vegetarianism are religions and so people can’t hear anything negative about either without feeling attacked if they are of the a fore mentioned camp.
Your comments here seem to show that to be the case. This interview by the way is 5 years old, in five years you are the only person to attack Lierre personally about it.
I mean don’t you think I knew when I brought a self described “radical feminist” on the air in 2012 that I knew we politically were about 180 out from each other.
If people can’t discuss the things we agree on with people we largely disagree with what fucking hope do we have. I will also say there is a big difference between the feminism of Lierre Keith and the purple haired screaming shrill idiots bashing white males on Youtube.
I have never heard Lierre bash a man for being a man, doubt I ever will. We still largely disagree but yet we can respect one another. If that troubles you, find a mirror and do some real self reflection.
I hadn’t listened to this when it aired originally so I’m really glad this was a rewind. What a great episode! I’ve been in the Permie sphere for a while now but I feel like I learned a lot of interesting new things from Lierre.
I gave the show a fair listen with an open mind.
Some actual myths are debunked – as they should be.
The elephant in the room: more than 10x the resources of water, land and grain are consumed to raise meat animals.
The grain cartels of corporate America do not make their money from vegetarians or vegans. This does not drive the current food model.
Cattle and other meat animals are the primary cause of rainforest destruction, soil erosion (including all those corn fields and soy fields). I am all for a return to grass-fed cattle farming which is not subsidized by my tax dollars.
(I don’t hear any vegetarians/vegans calling for removing animals from the land. Bring the bison back. And most of us have no problem with hunter-gathering lifestyles.)
I have been exceedingly healthy for the entire 30 years of eating vegetarian, and just became vegan for the past three of those years.
One thing she is right about: There are many dietary factors (sugar, GMO grains and pesticide-laden grains, etc.) that threaten the health of a vegetarian. If you stop eating meat you have to stop eating sugar, or you will consume your minerals processing that sugar.
It is assumed that if you are smart enough to go vegan and care for the environment, that you will educate yourself and care for your own body’s needs.
Vegans need fat and can easily get it from nuts and avocados (none of which tear up the land!).
There just is no such thing as “humane dairy” – sorry – and I sometimes eat cheese, too. Still, I would admit that raw milk is way healthier.
Sauerkraut and kombucha or other foods for intestinal health are vital and improve absorption and help guarantee no worries about protein or other nutrients.
In any case, the human body is designed to be herbivorous, and there is simply not enough land mass to raise animals as food:
(ignore the CO2 angle – I do – that is not the point – look at the land use issues – which was the main objection brought up in this show)
http://www.cowspiracy.com/
As for the elephant it is a pink one, in other words an imagined one!
Cows prefer to eat what?
A. Corn
B. Sweet Feed
C. Candy Bars
D. Grass
Which of these grows back all by itself after being eaten by a cow?
A. Corn
B. Sweet Feed
C. Candy Bars
D. Grass
What type of cow did we say to eat on this episode, one that eats?
A. Corn
B. Sweet Feed
C. Candy Bars
D. Grass
Pigs eat pasture, fallen mast, etc and are much healthier that way. Raising chickens profitably does require some grain but not much if they are pastured, about 35% of what is fed in chicken houses.
And if you don’t think there is such a thing as a humane dairy, frankly get out more!
The entire story of veganism an vegetarianism is built upon nothing but myths. Frankly it all started to convince the peasants the gruel was good for them while the king dined on boar and stag!