Why are entire flocks of industrial birds dying at once? And what about the people eating those birds? Just the other day, one of the local pediatricians was telling me he's seeing all kinds of illnesses that he never used to see. Not only juvenile diabetes, but inflammatory and autoimmune diseases that a lot of the docs don't even know what to call. And girls are going through puberty much earlier; and kids are allergic to just about everything, and asthma is out of control. Everyone knows it's our foods... Kids today are the first generation to grow up on this stuff.

Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.

I wondered, for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live. What exactly made it worth it?

Our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.

I felt shame for living in a nation of unprecedented prosperity-a nation that spends a smaller percentage of income on food than any other civilization has in human history-but in the name of affordability treats the animals it eats with cruelty so extreme it would be illegal if inflicted on a dog.

Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, and identity.

Feeding my children is not like feeding myself: it matters more.