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  • Hungry Beautiful Animals

  • The Joyful Case for Going Vegan
  • Written by: Matthew C. Halteman
  • Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

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Hungry Beautiful Animals

Written by: Matthew C. Halteman
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Publisher's Summary

A heartfelt, humane, and even hilarious account of why rule-obsessed veganism fails and how a focus on flourishing can bring about an abundant future for all

Perhaps you’ve looked at factory farming or climate change and thought, I should become a vegan. And like most people who think that, very probably you haven’t. Why? Well, in our world, roast turkey emanates gratitude, steak confers virility, and chicken soup represents a mother’s love. Against that, simply swapping meat for plants won’t work.

In Hungry Beautiful Animals, philosopher Matthew C. Halteman shows us how—despite all the forces arrayed against going vegan—we can create an abundant life for everyone without using animals for food. It might seem that moral rectitude or environmental judgement should do the trick, but they can’t. Going vegan must be about flourishing, for all life. Shame and blame don’t lead to flourishing. We must do it with joy instead.

Hungry Beautiful Animals is more than philosophy: it’s a book of action, of forgiveness, of love. Funny and wise, this book frees us joyfully to want what we already know we need.

©2024 Matthew C. Halteman, PhD (P)2024 Basic Books

What the critics say

“Only Matt Halteman could have penned Hungry Beautiful Animals. Drawing from personal experiences and philosophical insights, this timely exploration of the profound impact of our dietary choices on both individual and collective flourishing is essential reading for anyone who eats. Halteman offers a fresh perspective on going vegan, one that doesn’t require you to give up your favorite foods or compromise your cultural traditions. Instead, Hungry Beautiful Animals invites us to embrace the beauty and abundance that vegan living can provide, not as a sacrifice but as a joyful celebration of life on this planet.”—Bryant Terry, James Beard Award–winning author of Vegetable Kingdom
“Vegan advocacy is vitally important and urgently needed. It is also thorny terrain, which is why it needs eloquent, informed ambassadors, preferably with a sense of humor. Halteman delivers magnificently on all fronts. I utterly recommend this book!”—Jonathan Balcombe, author of What a Fish Knows
“Welcome to Halteman’s affirming vision for all of us hungry beautiful animals. Settle into time with an author who believes in our ability to transform moral burdens into gifts of consciousness and lives of abundance. Park feelings of shame, guilt, or blame at the door—they aren’t needed here. Instead, in this readable, entertaining, evocative, and joyful book, Halteman offers us vulnerable, questing, caring animals a compass for our compassion and recipes for our individual and collective flourishing.”—Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat

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