THE ETHICAL CARNIVORE

LOUISE GRAY, BLOOMSBURY, £16.99

This book is a mix of an exposé of ‘factory’ farming blended with a John Buchan novel, in which the author embarks on a year’s quest to kill and source her meat. It’s not without deep emotion, from when she shoots her first rabbit, to her trauma at experiencing abattoir operations first-hand – “the evisceration is too strong, no wonder we protect ourselves from it”.

Gray doesn’t shy from difficult subjects. She meets “pragmatic, unsentimental” RSPCA inspectors, delves into halal slaughter and engages with those “looking like businessman not farmers” on indoor poultry and caged salmon. She shoots a lamb, stalks a stag and annoys trawlermen over dogfish (“you know it’s a shark?”), nibbles insects and hunts roadkill.

Either seeking to please all readers or being conflicted by her experiences, the author wobbles on the fence. She happily kills “vermin” rabbit for the pot, yet finds it hard to stomach other types of shooting. (On being told to be a predator, she admits “I have no killer instinct”). As someone versed in the relevant subjects, I was conscious that little space was given to the complex conservation issues framing game shooting and farming practices.

Rightly lambasting us for only eating five species of fish and questioning why conservation organisations don’t challenge their members’ diet, she concludes, in a thoughtful author’s note, that we can empower ourselves to think more about from where our meat originates.