The Great Plant-based Con, a Myrna Robins Review

The Great Plant-based Con by Jayne Buxton

The book is broadly designed as a reference guide, while not suggesting what you should eat, rather presenting an understanding of health and ethical factors so readers can make informed decisions.

So says a notice at the start of the text. The author’s note should also be read, where she relates how, during two years of research, she met an American rancher who was concerned about the debate on food, health and the environment being commandeered by plant-based advocates . He was one of many which led her to challenge the message that she regards as all-pervasive today: it is summed up on the front cover as “why eating a plants-only diet won’t improve your health or save the planet.”

Greta Thunberg – Climate Activisit

Over the last two years climate change has occupied innumerable hours of global television coverage. The reaction by young activists like Greta Thunberg has seen thousands of young viewers take personal decisions, which saw many changing their diet, resulting in a virtual “war on meat and dairy.” Buxton points out numerous incidents of incorrect assertions by the media such as animal farming being the biggest factor in climate change – she offers plenty of proof of these mistakes.

In the UK livestock farmers are reportedly nervous for the safety of their farm thanks to inaccurate media reports quoted by vegan activists.

Buxton proceeds to delve into the facts in four parts, answering questions on whether the plant-based diet is better for our health, whether such a diet will save the planet. She tells us who is advocating such diets and why, and suggests how we should or could eat instead.

Vegan Activists outside a meat plant in the UK

There are two chapters covering the nutritional scorecard and why plant-based diets are not suitable for infants, young children and pregnant women that present detailed studies from a number of medical and nutrition sources.

More than 500 pages later, her answers make compelling reading: She reveals some shocking facts – on how, for example, funding is directed to dietitians and academics. Kellogg’s Breakfast Council was billed as a group of independent experts to guide the cereal giant’s nutrition. In fact, we are told, it consisted of individuals who were paid $13 000 a year to define a quality breakfast in which they were prohibited from including products that were competitive or negative to cereal.

Answering the question how should we eat, Buxton promotes the number of British farmers today who are dedicated to sustainable livestock farming where animals are not confined. She supports those who eating fresh, local, seasonal whole food, or natural food that includes fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, cream and eggs. .Farmers working in harmony with nature, consumers staying with unprocessed foods

Thomas Coke the 8^th Earl of Leicester

Quoting from farmers in both the US and the UK who are farming using regenerative principles, they report healthy soils full of earthworms, and cattle and dairy cows and pigs which feed on diverse pastures and browse among trees. One such farm is Holkham Estate in Norfolk, home to Thomas Coke the 8^th Earl of Leicester. He is promoting biodiversity, carbon sequestration and phasing out of pesticides both on the home farm and encouraging tenant farmers to follow.

There is so much more – the effect of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for example, an organisation which does much to reveal animal cruelty, particularly in food production and medical research, both in the US and across the globe. But in this text its anti -meat bias has resulted in their being the largest donor to PCRM’s (Physicans’ Committee for Responsible Medicine) education courses for nurses and doctors. PETA hand out their publications to new medical and nursing students but the AMA (American Medical Association) describes their committee as neither numbering physicians nor responsible. As a reader who follows their Facebook entries, I applaud their investigations into cruelty, but find this aspect concerning.

Crow on a trunk

Farmers and environmentalists in the UK are making a convincing case for sustainable and cruelty-free meat production to counter the avalanche of activist outpourings. It’s also called regenerative farming where wild animals, birds and insects flourish. This title explores this system and needs to be read by carnivores, omnivores, vegetarians and vegans.

Myrna Robins