Happy Meat: The Sadness and Joy of a Paradoxical Idea

by Shyon Baumann, Emily Huddart Kennedy, Josee Johnston, Merin Oleschuk

Overview

North Americans love eating meat. Despite the increased awareness of the meat industry's harms–violence against animals, health problems, and associations with environmental degradation–the rate of meat eating hasn't changed significantly in recent years. Instead, what has emerged is an uncomfortable paradox: a need to square one's values with the behaviors that contradict those values.

Using a large-scale, multidimensional, and original dataset, Happy Meat explores the thoughts and emotions that underpin our moral decision-making in this meat paradox. Conscientious meat-eaters turn to the notion of "happy meat" to make sense of their behaviors by consuming meat they see as more healthy, ethical, and sustainable. Happy meat might be labeled grass fed, free-range, antibiotic free, naturally raised, or humane. The people who produce and consume it, together, make up the complex landscape of conscientious meat-eating in modern Western societies.

The discourse of happy meat ultimately may not be a sufficient response to all the critiques of meat eating, rife as it is with contradictions. However, it offers a powerful case for understanding how moral boundaries and notions of the 'good eater' are constructed through negotiations of values, identity, and status.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781503642836
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	06/17/2025
Series:	Culture and Economic Life
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Josée Johnston is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on food, gender, culture, and politics. She is the co-author, with Shyon Baumann, of Foodies (2015) and, with Kate Cairns, of Food and Femininity (2015). Shyon Baumann is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His work addresses questions of evaluation, legitimacy, status, classification, and inequality. Past book projects include Hollywood Highbrow (2007). Emily Huddart is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. She is an environmental sociologist with a focus on consumer attitudes and behaviors. She is the author of Eco-Types (2022). Merin Oleschuk is Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How did Meat Become "Happy"?
I. Situating Happy Meat
1. Exploring the Ethical Meatscape
2. No Reservations? The Complicated Case of Regular (but Conflicted) Meat-Eating
II. The Emotions of Eating Meat
3. Meat is Disgustingand Delicious!
4. Happy Meat Makes Me Feel Good
III. Raising Happy Animals
5. The Reality Behind Raising Happy Meat: Beyond a Good/Evil Binary
6. Producing Happy Meat at Scale: Managing Vital Animals and Thinking Sustainably
IV. The Boundary Work of Happy Meat
7. Other People's Meat
8. Meat Makes Us Healthy and Whole—and Can Even Heal the Planet
Conclusion: How Can We Eat Ethically When Meat Is Murder?

Editorial Reviews

"By foregrounding meat consumption's emotional and cultural contours, Happy Meat forces readers to confront entrenched assumptions about food consumption. We mistakenly look to resolve what the authors identify as the meat paradox through education and critique. To escape this paradox, we must understand the contradictions and complexities of meat eating.To do that, I encourage everyone to read this timely book." —Michael Carolan, Colorado State University

"A fascinating analysis of the manifold ethical contradictions of meat, based on extraordinary data collection as well as extensive qualitative research. Engagingly written, deeply insightful, and thought-provoking, the book is a must-read for scholars and a great choice for students at any level." —Juliet Schor, Boston College

From the Publisher