About Meat, Cooking, and the Killing of Animals

Wyatt Williams wanted to write a thick book that would be published in hardcover on dense paper. He would dedicate each chapter to a different animal, starting with small birds: partridges and pigeons, followed by chickens and ducks— and then, in order of size, deer, wild boars, and cattle, continuing until the series was complete. The book could serve as a field guide to eating meat, with stories about how animals grow and how they are killed; about how meat is prepared for sale and distributed around the world. Readers could see the intertwining lives of humans and animals and draw complex conclusions about the structure of our society. He even chose a title— The Order of Animals. However, he never wrote that book. Instead, he wrote another one—the one you hold in your hands. In it, Williams describes his long journey to find the answer to a simple question: Why do we eat meat?