I just watched the Lion King. In an eloquent and shockingly succinct dialogue, Mufasa explains to Simba the concept of the circle of life: how the lions eat the antelope, and the antelope eat the grass, and when the lions die, they become the grass. Simba’s mind is essentially blown. Little did he know that today we’d face vehement wars gone woefully awry, in which trying to hack the natural system has lead to something more akin to an elephant graveyard. I lament these wars, as I believe they come from a place of seeking truth, goodness, health, and least amount of harm. Yet they are often wedding to ideologies which blindsight us to the actual implications of our choices. Even worse, it can be hard to get a clear understanding even if you want to, as the majority of the rhetoric filters through the lenses of hidden agendas, which refuse to budge in the wake of truth.Thank goodness for Sacred Cow.If you are at all concerned with the sustainability of our present food system, and seek unbiased, non-cherry picked information concerning the actual implications of our farming systems on both our health and the future of our planet, this book is for you. Robb and Diana have done a fantastic job of thoroughly considering the nutritional, environmental and ethical components of a livestock-inclusive system. In a brilliant (dare I say, “fun”) analogy, they explore a mythical “Grassworld,” revealing the implications of an ecosystem (or lack thereof) without adequate diversity of species to sustain itself.While I rarely use the word facts,” Robb and Diana dive deep into the nutritional “facts" of meat. (While we can debate ethics and sustainability implications all day long - Joe Rogan style - it’s hard to argue the literal amount of nutrition in a food. Though people do it.) They make a compelling case that a meat-inclusive diet provides the maximum bang for your buck nutrition wise, and analyze the nutritional pitfalls of a plant-only diet. They comprehensively analyze the many meat attacks, such as cholesterol, cancer, high protein diets, TMAO, AGEs, etc. In perhaps a shocking turn, they scrutinize the nutritional benefits from conventional and grass-fed meat, and well - let’s just say they may ruffle the feathers of a few carnivores, and even those in the regenerative farming or “Paleo” system. (I actually have some questions I’d like to further discuss with them, on this particular topic.)Today’s modern zeitgeist is painted with talk of spoil depletion and methane emissions. It’s pretty in vogue to fill your vernacular with words like “greenhouse gasses” (or if you want to get really fancy, "“carbon sequestering.”) But do we actually understand what these literally mean? I sure didn’t! But after reading Sacred Cow, not only do I now have a more appropriate grasp on the subject matter, I feel like my eyes have been opened to the misleading stance of removing livestock to save the planet from global warming. Yikes. You’ll also learn everything you ever wanted to know about topsoil, how much land/water/feed cattle require, what monocropping does to our world, and more.If you’re looking for a meaty discussion of ethics, it’s all here. Robb and Diana consider all aspects of ethics in our eating system: Why did meat become taboo? How are we separated today from nature and death? What "type" of animal death is most humane? What system (plant based or animal-inclusive) actually yields the least amount of harm? What role should government policies play? And perhaps most compelling (at least to me): how does privilege in in mandating certain dietary approaches, lead to silent and sinister racism and elitism?Sacred Cow also also manages to touch on essentially every “random” topic lying in a responsible foodist’s treasure trove of interests: from insect protein to GMOs to fossil fuels to lab grown meat to raising camel to veganism and sexual health… it’s all here!And lastly, if you don’t have adequate time at present to read the entire book, and just want to be told what to eat to make the best changes for your health and the future of our world, they’ve got a quick guide to that. (I imagine likely encouraged at the urging of their publishers, because some people just want to be told what to do now. That said, if you do “skip to that section,” I urge you to consider ultimately reading the book in its entirety.)It’s easy to live in blissful ignorance or - on the flip side - subscribe to an immutable agenda which requires no further questioning or reanalyzing of the subject. But comprehensively reviewing and considering all factors, even if they challenge previously held ideologies tied to identity… that’s hard. I want to thank Robb and Diana for providing this exhaustive information and treating us with intelligence and respect. They are not preaching, they are educating, so that we may consciously make choices which support the greatest good, of both ourselves and the planet.