In Meat We Trust: An Unexpected History of Carnivore America

Ogle (Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer) provides an unflinching look at the history of American meat industries: beef, pork, and poultry. She deftly details the peculiar struggles that led to an embrace of industrialization—changes that were seen as near miracles of science and production, designed to make food labor safer, more efficient, and better able to feed the nation. In particular, the combined forces of two world wars and the rise in the number of factories led thousands to seek their fortunes in cities, depriving farms of much needed workers. Factorylike farming solved the labor shortage, but farmers experienced the paradox of plenty: squeezed by too much supply, they were unable to sell at prices high enough to pay their own bills. Ogle generally keeps her opinions to a minimum and reserves her harshest criticism for the American public, whom she believes to be an entitled bunch that has spent the last century demanding that the paradox of plenty always be rigged in their favor.