A more generous view of the beef industry than Eric Schlosser's recent Fast Food Nation, this anecdotal account follows a cow's life from conception to consumption. Lovenheim (Mediate, Don't Litigate), a professional mediator, was buying his daughter a McDonald's Happy Meal with a coveted Beanie Baby cow when he was struck by how little most beef-eaters know about the process that turns cute calves into juicy burgers. He found an operating dairy farm near his upstate New York home that agreed to sell him two calves, and to allow him 24-hour access to all aspects of the farm's operation. Tracing the progress of his holstein calves as they are raised for "dairy meat" (middling quality beef that ends up at mid-priced restaurants), Lovenheim offers an absorbing firsthand look at cattle-raising. How bull semen is collected, why cows are made to ingest magnets, how bulls are de-horned and castrated, how dairy cows are chosen for slaughter, why antibiotics and additives are used, how a cattle auction is conducted—these are just some of the daily operations that Lovenheim illuminates while introducing readers to the men and women who work these farms. He ultimately never sets foot in a slaughterhouse, and the book is more a neutral, matter-of-fact exploration than a muckraking exposé, as much about Lovenheim's own education as it is about the beef that ends up on our tables. (July)
Forecast:If it can feed off the audience for last year's bestselling
Fast Food Nation, recently out in paper, this low-key look at the world of cattle could realize good sales within a niche market of readers drawn to narratives rooted in getting back to nature's basics.
