Meredith Leigh - The Ethical Meat Handbook, Revised and Expanded

Praise for
The Ethical Meat Handbook, Revised & Expanded Second Edition

Meredith Leigh is, in her own words, a lifelong pilgrim for food, but not just any food. She is a pilgrim for living food, real food, and food produced within intricately balanced natural systems, which, Leigh gently and elegantly reminds us, we can either live peacefully and humbly within or fight tooth and nail against. This book is for anyone looking to become an active, thoughtful participant in an intricate and always changing living system of food, community, and deliciousness.

Camas Davis, executive director of the Good Meat Project,
founder of the Portland Meat Collective

Community. Vitality. Deliciousness. The Ethical Meat Handbook is more than a dive into butchering, its a look into our ecosystem and taking back our planet through good food and through mindful sourcing and eating in our day to day lives. Meredith Leigh has a visionary approach towards ethical slaughter, whole animal utilization, and being aware of the world around you. This book is an essential read for meat eaters, and non-meat eaters alike, as it is a head first dive into our agricultural system that sheds light on the age-old importance of raising, and eating, healthy and sustainable livestock.

William S. Dissen, executive chef and owner of
The Market Place Restaurant, Haymaker Restaurant,
and Billy Ds Fried Chicken

This book is practical, yes, but its also deeply personal. Meredith Leigh will teach you how to raise animals, butcher them, and cook and cure their meat. Even better, she explains what it means and why it matters, and her passion is infectious. After reading this book, I longed to smell the deep funk of the barn, to feel the squish of mud beneath my chore boots, to heft a butcher knife in my hand.

Mark Essig, author of
Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig

Meredith Leigh is an unassuming superhero of the meat supply chain. She has taken a subject so often presented in the extreme either in the toughness of the butcher or the evilness of the industry to begin with and presented the nuance of real life while pulling no punches; delivering on every single point. In the tale of the life, death, and consumption of the animal to sustain us, Leigh alternates between the role of hands on expert, social and environmental activist, and inspired poet. Apply Leighs comprehensive research and practical knowledge to your food choices then apply her style of living, learning, and teaching to whatever you do next.

Joshua Lewin, chef and owner of Juliet and Peregrine

For the growing number of people looking to eat better meat, this book is invaluable: deeply thoughtful while accessible and pragmatic. It asks the right questions and answers them brilliantly.

Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Defending Beef and Righteous Porkchop.

The Ethical Meat Handbook is an inspirational must-read for anyone who eats food. Meredith Leigh champions for the respectful and ethical treatment of animals and those who raise and grow our food. This is thoughtful book for meat eaters and vegetarians alike.

Cassidee Dabney, The Barn at Blackberry Farm

The Ethical Meat Handbook, 2nd Edition elegantly invites the reader, as an eater, to consider food systems and how our choices (not always easy) can be the most radical thing we can do in regard to the health of our planet, our soils, our farmers, our communities, and ourselves. This is a must read for anyone looking to find something they can do at the home level to impact our planets crisis positively. Leigh deftly and elegantly helps us, the consumers of food, understand the intricacies of the production of our food and consumption habits. She paints an honest, yet hopeful picture. The Ethical Meat Handbook, 2nd Edition is wise, practical, and flexible, offering the reader a chance to dip in to any aspect from husbandry and butchery to charcuterie or nose to tail cooking.

Kirsten K. Shockey, food educator and author of
Fermented Vegetables and Miso, Tempeh, Natto, and other Tasty Ferments

I was only pages into reading when I was both surprised and delighted to realize that what I thought was a glorified cookbook was a much more dignified and intellectual look at the farm-to-table meat industry. I will definitely keep this book in my arsenal of educational tools, and I know Ill will refer to it again and again.

Brianna Hagell, owner/head butcher of
Vessel Meats and local food advocate

As a chef or anyone who gives a damn about the preparation and consumption of food, this book is a must-read. Witnessing Meredith mindfully slaughter a hogette from start to finish was a profound and emotional experience that I only fully realized after reading her words. She understands the complexity of our modern-day food system and offers real-life, unabashedly honest, informative, no bull shit possibilities towards ethical, sustainable, and delicious change.

Ann Kim, Chef, owner of Young Joni,
Pizzeria Lola, Hello Pizza, and Sooki & Mimi

This is an essential guide for anyone interested in where their food comes from and how to start raising it for themselves. Its a perfect reference book, covering topics such as; how our food should be produced, good animal husbandry and how that benefits us all, excellent photos with clear and thorough descriptions of full carcass, nose to tail butchery, and it even has some great recipes. Meredith Leigh shows us how we can all make a difference in our local communities and benefit from a symbiotic relationship with our Mother Earth.

Louisa Halewell, owner of Little Black Pig

The Ethical Meat Handbook is not just a carnivores guide to meat. It provides keen insight on our responsibility to the land, agriculture, and the Farmers that tend to it; it takes a deep dive into Food Access, Food Privilege, and what it means to redefine the way we approach meat preparation from slaughter to plate. This work is an eye-opener with regards to respectfully approaching the animals that sacrifice life for our sustenance as well as our bodies by reimagining the American dining experience.

Elle Scott, founder of SheChef Inc

The Ethical Meat Handbook is at once profound, poetic, and practical. Those of us who care deeply about the nourishment we give our bodies, the compacts we make with other living beings, and the future of this earth, realize that ours must be an ever-evolving understanding of what is right, sustainable, and good. In this, the second edition of her masterwork, Meredith Leigh shares new information for our decision making, deeper insights for our spirit, and thoughtfully crafted recipes for our tables, as well as for our lives.

Ronni Lundy author of Victuals, An Appalachian Journey with Recipes,
James Beard Cookbook of the Year, 2017

The second edition of Meredith Leighs The Ethical Meat Handbook is a poetic call to action for every modern day omnivore. What a relief to have a tool that isnt just some morose view on whats wrong with the food system but rather a practical instruction manual on how to contribute to lasting change. These pages are packed within critical information for every meat consumer from professional butchers, to novice culinary enthusiasts. Merediths incredible attention to detail and respect for every living microorganism in the ecosystem is apparent in every chapter. Leigh takes an honest and balanced look at current farming systems a produces a fun guide to sourcing, purchasing, utilization, and fun recipes for all meat. She doesnt act as the ultimate authority with all the answers, rather shares her findings and invites the reader to embark on a journey with her even past what is between these pages. This educational text reads like youre having a coffee with your favorite person.