Killing It: An Education

by Camas Davis

A wayward young woman abandons her magazine career to learn the old ways of butchery and discover what it means to take life into her own hands

Camas Davis was at an unhappy crossroads. A longtime magazine writer and editor in the food world, she'd returned to her home state of Oregon with her boyfriend from New York City to take an appealing job at a Portland lifestyle magazine. But neither job nor boyfriend delivered on her dreams, and in the span of a year, Davis was unemployed, on her own, with nothing to fall back on. Disillusioned by the years she'd spent mediating the lives of others for a living, she had no idea what to do next. She did know one thing: She no longer wanted to write about the real thing; she wanted to be the real thing.

So when a friend told her about Kate Hill, an American woman living in Gascony, France who ran a cooking school and took in strays in exchange for painting fences and making beds, it sounded like just what she needed. She discovered a forgotten credit card that had just enough credit on it to buy a plane ticket and took it as kismet. Upon her arrival, Kate introduced her to the Chapolard brothers, a family of Gascon pig farmers and butchers, who were willing to take Camas under their wing, inviting her to work alongside them in their slaughterhouse and cutting room. In the process, the Chapolards inducted her into their way of life, which prizes pleasure, compassion, community, and authenticity above all else.

So begins Camas Davis's funny, heartfelt, searching memoir of her unexpected journey to become a successful and enlightened butcher. It's a story that takes her from an eye-opening stint in rural France where deep artisanal craft and whole animal gastronomy thrives despite the rise of mass scale agribusiness, back to a Portland in the throes of a food revolution, where it suddenly seems possible to translate much of this old-world craft into a new world setting. Camas faces hardships and heartaches along the way, but in the end, Killing It is about what it means to pursue the real thing and to dedicate your life to it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Memoir, Food Writing, Audiobook, Cooking, Food and Drink

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 24, 2018

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

EAT, PRAY, LOVE, only this time 1) in France 2) with meat, and (3) an extra helping of self-absorption.

[Rae DelBianco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A transparent, honest, selfless evaluation of an issue most every modern American faces— what have we lost by making life easier? And in particular, what have we lost by releasing ourselves from responsibility and reverence toward where our food comes from? As a former teenage cattle rancher, Davis asks all the questions I'd locked up in my heart as a kid, and addresses them with intellectual curiosity, respect, and empathy, without pretending to know all the answers. I highly, highly recommend it for anyone seeking more understanding and involvement in the eating in our daily lives. It's a book that makes you think, and will stay with you long after you've finished the last page.

[Katy O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK. I LOVED IT. A memoir about life, love and butchery - be prepared for this to be a true memoir, not a narrative nonfiction account of the meat industry. Davis examines her entire life as she goes through the journey she embarks upon, and shares it all here. And I'm IN because that's exactly what I'm looking for in a memoir - the personal touch.

Regarding meat - lots of people have been asking “will it make me want to be a vegetarian?” and my answer is what I think the author would say ~ is it ethical to eat meat but want to be ignorant of where it came from? The book didn’t make me want to quit eating meat at all, but it did definitely make me think a lot harder about WHERE the meat comes from. And how it was raised and killed and butchered. It’s a deeply pragmatic and philosophical book for foodies and thinkers alike.

[Mrs C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was both aghast and tantalized with how the author pulled off describing her experience in butchery and sharing her views about meat processing and meat consumption. This book transformed me - I’m still a meat eater but it has made me curious about the meat handling process and it has made me care about where my food comes from.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow I could have sworn this book came out like a decade ago instead of 2018 bc of how out of date and white-feminism-y it was, damb! Anyhoo I wanted to learn more abt butchery so read this and don’t really thing I learned anything? Book is more abt this woman’s journey to learn butchery and then start a business, kinda boring, writing was uninspiring and cheesy, sooooo now gonna look for books abt butchery that are actually good

[Luke Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars.


So to me, "Killing It" by Camas Davis is two books in one. Part of the book is about a woman living in Portland, OR who after being fired from her magazine job decides to stop writing and start doing. In this case, that means heading over to France and learning (in just 7 weeks) how to be a butcher thanks to a very kind French family, the Chapolards. Still, this is also a book about that exact same woman trying to live her life. The book (both halves) is done in a memoir fashion and though I absolutely LOVED and was completely engrossed by the parts about butchery, I could of totally done without her love life and, in my opinion, often hypocritical views on other matters. At times it's just offal. Bada bing!

The book splits roughly 10/40/50%. The first 10% is the author bemoaning her situation as she is getting canned at her job. "Wahh, my boss doesn't like me" and "Wahhh, my boyfriend of ten years won't marry me so we broke up". Entirely way too much time is spent initially with the author poo-pooing her life. Who hasn't had a job that was all wrong for them? Your problems aren't special, as much as you'd like your readers to believe. And instead of walking out of her awful job with some self respect and dignity, she is content to listen through the vents as her boss talks poorly of her, and then just waits around until the ax, eventually and unsurprisingly, falls. Come on, girl, they're doing you a favor! You're not putting me into your camp, honestly, you're putting me off. Thankfully the author buys that plane ticket and we head over to France. Where for the most part the book gets really good.

Now we're in France where the author stays at a type of foodie-commune run by Kate who exchanges room and board at her place for help pulling weeds in her garden and putting up food stuff. The author is getting the lion's share of the deal here and though she is aware of that fact, she is still an egotist. At one point two Midwestern women, interested in starting a French bakery back in the states take up residence at Kate's place but they don't seem to mesh as well with the scene (at least not as well as Davis) and everyone breaths a big, happy sigh of relief when these two women return stateside. Wow you're mean! Davis has been there, what, a week? At this point in the book she hasn't even slaughtered her first pig and already she's the judge of who belongs and who doesn't? I think she writes of those two women something like, "they just didn't get it." Oh and you're Julia Child? Writing "Mastering the Art of French Butchery" are we? I found it very hard to like the author. I was jealous of what she was doing but her sitting around drinking other people's Armagnac and casting judgement? Who the hell are you?

About the midway point in the book, Davis returns to the states on a mission to put to use what she has learned in France. The final 50% of the book flirts with being interesting. Davis writes about getting an educational co-op started for those interested in whole animal butchery making use of every part of the animal which I whole-heartedly applaud and support. But then she goes and makes me wonder if she's in it out of genuine interest or in it for the fashion as she talks about the guys showing up to a hog slaughter in Converse shoes and Danner boots. At a presentation featuring poets readying their work about what meat, eating it and hunting it etc, means to them she tells us, "I decided to wear tight gray jeans and Sigerson Morrison heels" (p. 200) because she's the "sexy butcher". I picked up this book because I wanted to read about someone going from knowing nothing about butchering to be skilled in the art. I could not give two shits what brand of shoes you're wearing. To make it worse, for me at least, she then goes on to tell about (and excuse) the fact that she's sleeping with two different people and on the very next page. Yet, she has the nerve (in this case referring to killing the animal) say, "You commit to the act." I didn't understand how the author could make a point of committing to taking an animals life but see nothing wrong with not committing to a monogamous relationship. I honestly don't care who you're sleeping with, but I want to read a book about Camas Davis the butcher and not Camas Davis the bisexual.

And from their it just goes downhill for me. Though there are still interesting parts about her teaching classes on whole animal butchery and trying to educate high school kids just what is in that burger they love and where it comes from, there's much more about her having to put up with people who don't understand what she's trying to do, don't want to know where they're dinner is coming from, or being in a legal battle with rabbit stealing vegans. Uhhh, aren't you doing this to EDUCATE people? The fact that people don't understand is just job security! Also, you start a meat collective in PORTLAND of all places and then you have the nerve to act surprised that you're getting some backlash from PETA? What did you think was going to happen?!? Are we suppose to feel sorry for you? Because, again, I don't. Especially when you set out to bring Pate to the People but then write, "Still, I find myself not telling [about what she does] when I think that the telling will be too hard, that it will require too much of my energy, and too much of anyone else's. I wish, out of empathy, to prevent others from bearing the weight of it" (p. 329). So after 300+ pages of presenting yourself as this crusader for trying to get people to eat the whole pig and not just pork chops you're telling us some days it's just too much work? Where's the passion from the chapters when you were in France? You're getting all this press from Martha Stewart but you just don't feel like it today? Then it all concludes with a unclear story about the author's niece as she asks a child's questions about the world. The connection to seeing a pig go from being alive in a barn to being dinner on your plate is petty weak. And that's where it ends with more of an apology than a battle cry for what Davis is trying to do.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly don’t understand why some thought of this as an “Eat, Pray, Love” kind of memoir. This certainly is not that. Camas Davis has dedicated her adult life to the questions many of us don’t dare to face: Where does our meat come from and why? What have we lost by making life easier? What have we lost by releasing ourselves from the responsibility and reverence toward where our food comes from? Davis addresses these questions with, as another reviewer eloquently here states, “intellectual curiosity, respect, and empathy, without pretending to know all the answers.” This book is not for or against eating meat. This book doesn’t have the answers. But it does ask the questions. I think Davis uses this book as a platform to ask those questions so that you, the reader, will think about the answers for a very long time.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the world of food I often feel like there is very little compromise. There is a big divide, which is social, cultural, and moral that forces people to make ultimatums between vegetarianism/veganism or an omnivorous lifestyle. People who don’t eat meat do so for many different reasons, but a lot of them do so because they are concerned about the welfare of animals. Others do it out of religious or social reasons. The question of eating meat or not is complicated though. On the one hand, many people do not know how to answer if meat eating is ethical, and on the other hand many people would argue that meat eating is in and of itself completely unethical. I am not sure that Camas Davis’ memoir Killing It: An Education can answer all the questions about eating meat, neither do I think this review of her book can do much more. What I do believe is important about eating meat is that we are asking questions, investigating how meat is farmed and made, and how we could change our meat consumption to make meat eating better for the world.

I feel like before going into this review it is important to talk about my own stance on food, eating meat, and vegetarianism/veganism. I am an omnivore and have been my whole life. I am also an omnivore with food allergies and intolerances, which makes eating a bit of a minefield sometimes. As someone with food allergies to some of the major (non-meat) plant-based protein sources, my diet is complicated. I do not believe I could be healthy and vegan. And with advice from my allergy specialists I have finally found a food formula that works for me that is an unapologetic omnivorous menu.

I have also always eaten meat. I have fished/hunted and killed animals to eat. I have helped tan the skins of animals for leather and washed out intestines to make sausages. I like to eat and use as much of the animal as possible. Much like Davis, I come from a small part of society that has been connected to the life, death, and consumption of animals. The full circle of life, if you will. Whilst Davis talks of an education on where meat comes from in her memoir, I would argue that we need a re-education and a re-learning of where meat comes from and how we should be eating it.

The meat industry is often clouded with mystery. As Davis explains, most butchers would not be able to tell you how their meat got to them. If the animals were happy, free, old, young, etc. There is a real disconnect with meat on our plates and the cows walking around outside. Most people are disgusted by raw meat or the thought of killing animals, yet still eat meat. Most people would not be able to tell you how old pigs are at slaughter. We have had the hard stuff taken away and hidden from us, and so we end up clueless about the process. This leads us to often making decisions about meat consumption based on price (cheap is best) and not based on how the animals lived or were treated before and after slaughter. Something else that Davis only briefly touches on in the memoir is also the complication of class and money. A lot of people around the world eat meat because that is what is available. It is cheap or easy and therefore uncomplicated. It is easy to talk about ethical meat consumption when you have a steady stable job with a good salary and healthcare. It is entirely another story when you add poverty, food deserts, and class structures to the mix of ethical meat consumption. Although, like Davis suggests, meat consumption doesn’t have to a ‘yes’/’no’ answer. I believe, like Davis, that there are ways to eat meat ethically, which takes into account not just the way the animal was raised, but also the environment at large. It does mean that we need to cut down on the consumption of meat, buy meat locally, and learn more about how animals are treated through the entire process. I also strongly believe in witnessing the death of animal you are going to eat at least once in your life. If you eat meat, but killing an animal makes you cringe in horror, then maybe you should think about why you eat meat at all.

Re-learning how to eat meat means that action has to come from governments and the food industry as well as from below, the people. It means asking your butchers where their meat comes from. It means maybe looking for local farmers to deal directly with rather than big supermarket chains that buy from factory farms. It means having real and honest conversations with vegetarians and vegans and maybe looking at some more vegetable-based meals than you’re used to. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think that many vegetarians/vegans and/or animal rights activists have largely differing beliefs to the average omnivore. In fact, I think most people care about animal welfare, what happens to the environment, and trying to find ways to be healthy regardless of whether they eat meat or not. However, we have also created kilometres of no-mans-land between the two ideologies and neither side wants to come over the trenches to share a meal.

I also want to say that we cannot forget people with illnesses that directly impact how people eat. People with autoimmune diseases like allergies, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis (just to name a few) are often attacked for their food choices by vegetarians and vegans who refuse to believe that there are people who cannot be healthy just on plant-based diets. Not to mention people with anorexia, orthorexia, autism, ADD, and OCD (again, just to name a few) cannot restrict their diets because of their mental health and general well-being.

Food is always personal. It is so strongly linked to our culture, our family, our way of life, and our identity and we often forget this. I think this is partially why discussions about food can be so heated and passionate. We need to have more conversations about the way we consume meat that includes discussions about poverty, illness, availability, health, and social inclusion. We need to re-learn not just the way we eat meat, but also the way we talk about meat and Davis’ book is a great place to start.

How do you think we can have positive conversations about meat eating? Have you ever sourced meat locally before? Have you read Davis’ memoir? As always, share the reading love.

[Danielle W · Rating 3 out of 5]

This nonfiction book was pretty interesting. The author left a food writing job to spend some time in France training as a butcher but it ends up coming across as more of a dabble than a career commitment and most of the book follows the ambivalence she feels to several professions and several love interests but her constant commitment is to getting folks to think more about the meat that they eat and if there is a better way to honor the animal's life by using more of the less "prime" cuts. She never embraces the "I am now a butcher" role and instead stresses how she feels like a poser in the industry which is maybe what distinguishes her most as a "lady butcher." If she were a man, the book would be about how she is the greatest butcher/chef/storyteller that ever lived. The book is good, it makes you think and her story is interesting.

[Amy Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Edelweiss for my review copy of this book.
Camas Davis is a magazine writer who just got fired from her job, left her long time boyfriend and then moved in with a new boyfriend who she immediately tells she is going to France to learn to be a butcher. Sounds crazy right? I thought so until I read her story.

This book was incredibly fascinating and made me really think about where my food comes from and where I want it to come from in the future. Camas's entire journey into the world of butchering was so enlightening and I was capitvated throughout the whole story. This book made me think about so many things on so many levels. Everyone should definitely read it!

[Jana Rađa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I care about the planet. I try to make less waste. I try to use the car as little as possible. I have recently bought a few trees for my balcony and as soon as they get a bit bigger, I hope to plant them somewhere outside, so they become big and beautiful, produce oxygen, and make insects and birds (and at least some humans) happy. I also love animals, all of them. Yet, and here lies the ethical dilemma, I eat meat. I even eat beef, despite my abhorrence of factory farming and despite what science tells us about methane emissions.

A couple of months ago I stumbled upon a radio interview with Camas Davis, a food reviewer and editor, about her new book, “Killing It: An Education”. She asks, “Is it possible to raise and slaughter animals and then eat their meat in an ethical way?” To find the answer, writes Terry Gross for the NPR, she set out to the southwest of France to apprentice as a butcher on a small, family-run farm and slaughterhouse.

Being so close to the butchering process took some getting used to, she says. "I had to really confront my own moments of cringing or turning away or not wanting to see or know," she says. But ultimately Davis felt she had the answer to her question.

Davis came away from France feeling that "not all meat is created equal — and subsequently not all animal farming is created equal." She says the key to being an ethical carnivore is thinking carefully about how the animals are treated and where the meat is coming from.

"It's my theory — or it's a theory that I've developed over time, through my own education — that the further in we go, the better choices we make, the more agency we have in changing [the] system that brings food to our table," she says in the interview. You can listen to the interview here: n.pr/2DX4KSM.

Davis thinks, Terry Gross continues, that our food system is based on not telling, and that if we eat meat, we should understand the process and try to be as responsible as possible for decisions we make about the meat we buy and how much of it we consume.

At one point in the interview, Terry Gross asks:

A lot of people, a lot of our listeners, including meat eaters, will be revolted by the idea that you wanted to study butchery and that you teach it to students as part of what you teach them. Explain why you want people to know more about not only the provenance of their meat but also how it's butchered.

Davis responds:

I wrote the book to explore where that revulsion comes from and what purpose it serves. In the process of going to France and learning how to turn an animal into food, I had to really confront my own moments of cringing or turning away or not wanting to see or know. And I came to think over time about how that might support our current system of meat production and consumption, how being revolted is a way to make us feel we don't have responsibility or we're not a part of that system, and so, therefore, either there's nothing we can do, or we just allow that system to continue unchecked.

In my own education, I've found the more I went into those processes - be it slaughter or whole-animal butchery or turning a pig head into pate de tete - the more I thought - more deeply I thought about why I eat meat, how much of it I eat, where it comes from, and the more I was able to assess how comfortable I felt with certain parts of those production methods and which kinds of production methods felt right and which felt wrong - and so it's my theory - or it's a theory that I've developed over time through my own education - that the further in we go, the better choices we make and the more agency we have in changing that system that brings food to our table.

Ah, I thought, a book that promises to answer all my questions and resolve my dilemma. I bought the audiobook from Audible and I do not regret it.

I enjoyed listening to her stories about France and later, after her return to the States, how she founded the Portland Meat Collective, which brings ethical farmers, butchers and chefs to teach people who want to learn more about responsible ways of buying and eating meat. Her encounters with various other farmers and butchers in the States were also interesting. Actually, the only parts that I wanted to skip were those where Davis talks about her private life, but it was still a good book.

I still have a lot of questions and the moral dilemma lingers, but I have changed the way I buy meat and the way we consume it at home. The memoir was an extra impetus to change my habits of meat consumption, an effort that had started a few months before I found out about the book, but Davis showed a few new paths and I decided to follow.

I no longer buy meat from the grocery store (on account of both meat and packaging). I found two small butcher shops and I fill a freezer drawer once or twice a month. I can't say that I eat less meat, because I have never eaten that much in the first place, but I think about the process more, which is a good thing.

The problem, however, is that unless you are directly involved in the whole process you never really know how the animal lived and how it died and, for some reason, this matters to me. Shortly after I read the book, La Vanguardia released a hidden camera video from a certified organic slaughterhouse in France that showed animals being bled while still showing signs of consciousness and also being slaughtered without having been stunned at all. I saw it, inadvertently, and I had an immediate visceral reaction and I got really, really mad. I understand that to kill an animal is necessary, since most people eat meat if they can afford it, but to kill an animal with such brutality only serves to show how ineffective the system for humane treatment of animals really is, and this was in France where animal rights activists are ferociously vocal, the system more transparent, and legislation obviously more enforceable than in my country. The workers have since been charged with animal mistreatment and not following regulations (The Local fr: bit.ly/2EaaIk3), but you cannot un-see what you have seen. What goes in, stays in. A man called Bob says at one point in “Killing It: An Education”: “I also believe if every slaughterhouse and farm and butcher shop were made of glass, we'd have a very different system of meat production.” I agree. That way consumers, including myself, would not be able to pretend we have no idea where the meat comes from and would have to address our concerns, while those within the system could not afford to become numb to fear and suffering.

However, this opens a new set of questions:
1) Having read the book, have I expanded my menu in terms of different parts of the animal that I eat? No, not really.
2) Would I like to learn how to kill an animal and cut meat? No, no, no.
3) Have I decided to become a vegetarian? No, but I try to skip meat two times a week and eat more plant-based protein foods, seeds, and nuts.
4) I drink milk and yoghurt, so how about the environmental impact of milk? Dairy cows, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change? No? Well, I no longer buy milk from the grocery store in plastic bottles. I buy raw milk from a vending machine in reusable glass bottles and I make my own yoghurt. Does that count?

Vox has published an interview with Jacy Reese about his new book, “The End of Animal Farming”, recently (VOX: bit.ly/2zDvp3P, and for an edited extract from The End of Animal Farming, visit The Guardian here: bit.ly/2DYZM8a). He lays out the steps, over the next century, to end the farming of animals, and it often gets even bigger-picture than that, discussing how compassion toward animals is part of a broader societal trend toward wider “circles of moral concern”: caring more than we ever have about beings who are very different from us.

No, I am not going to read it, but he says something that is applicable to any large-scale problem, such as factory animal farming, climate change, migration:

There are a lot of books out there — and documentaries and articles and every form of content you can think of — explaining all the problems with animal farming, whether that’s environmental or animal or health or workers’ rights. We’ve got that down, I think, as a society. I think people don’t internalize the information, but at least it’s out there.

What we don’t have as much about is how we get to the solution. Psychologically, I think that’s a really important part of how people understand the problem and kind of take it to heart and see it as an important movement. You know they need to see a path forward, not just a gaping problem.

People have what psychologists call a collapse of compassion when they see an insurmountable problem — a million deaths is a statistic; a single death is a tragedy. And they don’t appreciate that scale because they don’t see a concrete possibility. How do we actually go about solving this? I was able to look from a perspective of psychology, sociology, history, economics, etc., and really ask, How do we pave the path forward? …

[C]ollapse of compassion … is the apathy that happens when we see a large problem that doesn’t have a clear solution. If people choose to feel compassion and feel empathy toward farmed animals, it’s a pretty significant commitment because then they start to recognize what a moral atrocity animal farming is. And if they don’t see that that problem can be solved, then at some level, I think they understand that they’re going to be stuck in this cycle of sadness, of anger, of whatever negative emotions they feel about the issue.

That’s it, isn’t it? The problem of animal farming, as well as climate change, is huge and multifaceted and there are so many groups lobbying for so many “solutions”, while at the same time trying to ban behaviour they don’t like, that the easiest thing to do is to tune out the noise, which, of course, is the last thing we should do.

Project Syndicate posted an article, Ban the Beef? (bit.ly/2PgyifU), on 21 November, and I was so relieved, because there was finally someone expressing that rarest of opinions: an objective all-encompassing one without exclusionary clichés. Bjørn Lomborg explains that he is a vegetarian his entire adult life because he doesn’t want to kill animals, so he can empathize with the interest in promoting less meat in our diets. But he wants to make sure the science is right. When you look beyond the headlines, those arguing for banishing meat-eaters from restaurants and calling on everyone to change their diets, he says, are often cherry-picking the data while ignoring basic facts. “In a developed-country setting, the reality is that going entirely vegetarian for the rest of your life means reducing your emissions by about 2%,” Lomborg says and continues:

An emissions cut of a couple of percentage points is nothing to sneer at, but it is certainly not what will ‘save the planet’. The inconvenient truth is that few individual actions can transform the battle against climate change. One action that could make a genuine difference is campaigning for far more spending on global investment in green-energy research and development. This technology needs to be massively developed if we are ever to bring forward the day when alternatives can outcompete fossil fuels.

More R&D also is needed to reduce the carbon impact of farming, as well as to develop and produce at scale artificial meat, which could cut greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 96%, relative to conventionally produced meat.

Individual action to decrease our environmental footprint matters. Our consumer choices also matter: They are a direct message to companies that make products and to stores that sell them. They also make us feel more alive: It is good to live by one’s values. However, ultimately, the single most powerful thing that citizens can do, is vote.

If the establishment is silent or continually fails to deliver on its promises concerning climate change, while information about climate change and all its consequences, including the resulting migration, seems to be getting worse and worse, perhaps it is time to leave the ruling elites behind and vote for people who offer a clear-sighted vision and solutions for a sustainable tomorrow that includes everyone.

[Kate Lyon]

Talk about a subject matter I know hardly anything about!! This book gave “Eat Pray Love” vibes but with less religion and more grit. I liked how the author portrayed the different people she met throughout her journey. Her descriptions were vivid and veryyyyyy detailed. I appreciate the author’s desire to start a dialogue with people instead of condemning or shaming others for the what/how they eat!

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone on the fence about eating meat. As someone who does, I have learned so much about the process and where our food comes from from Camas Davis. She's a beautiful writer, and as much as her descriptions of butchery make you wince, her descriptions of her time in France make you drool. Writing about food and, of course, meat becomes almost poetic in her hands. Which sounds over-the-top and absurd, but it's true. I just loved this so much. Davis really knocked it out of the park with this.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book very quickly, mostly because I often said I wanted to quite my job, work with my hands, and become a butcher. Obviously that hasn't happened yet so this book was the next best thing. Interesting insights on different cultures and whole animal butchery and the arguments about whether to eat meat or not, all good stuff. Kept me entertained from beginning to end. It very much speaks to a city reader, growing up near farms and rural landscapes I know where you can purchase a whole animal and get it butchered to your liking.

One interesting point she made was how many people don't eat head cheese, gizzards and other non-conventional animals parts anymore, and it made me think about how my grandparents DID make head cheese and eat liver or gizzards, and frankly I'm a little sad I had shown no interest in trying or gleaning those recipes that are now gone with them.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

If only Davis had curtailed the book at about the two-thirds mark, it would've been a perfect 4 stars (maybe even 4.5). The last third felt whiny and further highlighted how she used a fair number of people in her life. I will say though that she has some measure of courage to be that honest about her flaws, so kudos for that.

Her descriptions of slaughter, abattoirs, and butchery were incredibly vivid, while also being entirely respectful. I've participated in chicken slaughter on a small farm and everything felt very familiar to me. Really interesting read and I agree with a lot of her points, particularly that people should be far more familiar with where their food comes from.

I'm torn on giving it a 3 or a 4 star rating, but in the end it came down to me being largely uninterested in the last third of the book.

[Renae · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars - but only b/c the author went into French cuisine, culinary techniques, etc. This book was Eat Pray Love meets Julia & Julia with one of the most stunning heaping's of self-absorbed "humbled bragging" ever imagined. I found myself skipping over the author talking about how brave she was, her detailed conversations on how she had no idea if she would write a book ( which appears to have been planned the entire time) and how she embraced people thinking she was crazy b/c deep down she knows how awesome she is and the author wants you to know how awesome she is too damn it!!

If you enjoy reading about food, where your food comes from and classic techniques regarding all things food related there are parts of this book you will enjoy.

[Mollie Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Formidable! What an awesome read! Fascinating and sincere, Camas Davis will make you question where our meat comes from and, at the same time, make you want to learn how to butcher a pigs head and make pate de tete.
Read this book as soon as you can get your hands on it. You will not be disappointed.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Cindy Roesel and Penguin for this book.

I'd have to give this book 3.5 stars.

Everything you've always wanted to know about pigs and butchering of them and other meats and were afraid to ask. If you don't eat bacon, pork, or other products of the pig or any other meat, or you are squeamish, this book might not be for you. It was a learning experience to say the least about this process.

I wasn't sure how I would like reading about slaughtering pigs and meats but I ended up really liking it. I thought the first 150 pages were a little slow for me since Camas was in France learning and I got a little bored with all the details, etc. She came back to the U.S. finally and ended up doing a lot of freelance reporting, writing when she decides to do classes in how to butcher meat, pigs, etc. She ends up working in a meat market where she learns all kinds of things until she goes independent and teaches and becomes successful.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camas Davis's eye-opening experience will truly educate its reader on all things meat. You'll ask yourself questions about all facets of the meat industry - because that is exactly where her path led after being let go from her food magazine job in 2009. From comparing American practices to traditional French ways she learned while studying butchery abroad, to the truth behind buzz words like"local" grass-fed" etc. Davis has an informative approach that also touches on personal moments in her life, as would any memoir. But I felt most involved with the story being told when she returned from France and put her learning into practice creating the Portland Meat Collective. Whether you are a meat eater, vegetarian, vegan, or even undecided, there is a reason to pick up this book- I'm grateful for the opportunity to never look at meat the same way, and that is the highest compliment I can pay.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love discussing food ethics and humanely raised livestock -- cannot recommend this book more. I can't believe everything she accomplished, it's quite inspiring on an entrepreneurial level as well as a self-reflection and "how can I vote for better food practices with my time and money" thought provoking questions. For anyone in the Twin Cities, we have so many Portland Meat Collective equivalents! I had no idea until after reading this book that they were options like this out there.

[Lauren Maresca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar in narrative framing & premise to eat, pray, love. The commentary on butchery/American culture's relationship to meat was quite thoughtful and powerful. Davis' treatment of American 'characters,' if they can be called that in a memoir, had an air of contempt that was ungenerous and cast her with a superiority complex. Despite that critique, this was a thoroughly interesting book on a very fresh topic!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea, especially the personal memoir stuff. But I’m still glad I read it for the honest discussion of the ethics of eating meat and the nostalgia for the lost knowledge of a pre-industrial age. Challenged me to think about issues I hadn’t thought I cared about but now find to be important.

[Laura Yan · Rating 4 out of 5]

eat pray love, but with butchery? reading this book was pretty wonderful - i got a glimpse of a world i knew little about, and i appreciated camas's nuanced approach to thinking about food and meat and consumption (even if at times it leaned too heavily on romanticizing the traditions of the french). her personal stories and romantic interludes were nonessential but fun (if at times leaning a bit too heavily on ego), and the description of the cooking school in gascony was wonderful and lush. it made me get excited about learning more about butchery and cuts of meat and looking at things differently, which meant it was a great discovery.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent meditation on meat that has damn good writing.

[Marilyn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Camas Davis is discontented writing and editing food magazines and needs a change. Suddenly unemployed, Davis travels to France to learn butchery from an established family of pig farmers. Throughout her journey she confronts her preconceived ideas and feelings about all aspects of meat, the need for creating meaningful work and community. She continues her path back in Oregon, creating the Portland Meat Collective. Davis openly shares her struggle, doubts and successes finding authenticity.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's what I liked about the book: The author decides to leave the life she had built for herself after she got fired and pursue a calling. The calling was in a field usually dominated by men, and she created a new life for herself with butchery. I enjoy stories about people being mindful food consumers, questioning what they've always known about food, and teaching others to question and change their habits as well.

Here's what I didn't like about the book: The plot, if there is one, was often hard to follow. I would be listening to the audiobook and have to rewind 3 or 4 times in a row because the way the story is told, I felt like I missed a chunk. But no, that's just the way it's written. Other times, she would continue telling an incident that she started a chapter or two ago. I found it confusing and the content was not entertaining enough that it made me want to follow it.

The biggest thing for me though, was that I didn't find the author particularly likable. Especially, ESPECIALLY, when it turned out she was a typical straight girl toying with a lesbian's heart. Camas found a woman butcher who supported her and partnered with her in starting her butchery classes. She led her on for about a year (maybe more, couldn't really tell from the way it's written) all while dating some guy, who she actually ended up marrying and having a baby with. The other woman, Jo, turns out just fine with her own wife and child, but I just thought that was really messed up of Camas. She also never really seemed apologetic or regretful about it, neither to Jo, nor her now-husband, but I'm sure they all figured it out in their own way.

The romance isn't really a big part of the book, per se (although I did find it to be one of the most interesting), but it's clear Jo made a huge impact on Camas actually starting her classes, and her presence does show up throughout part 3 of the book.

Overall: I enjoyed this deep look at meat and alternatives to current inhumane industrial farming of animals. I've been on and off vegan for a few years, mostly because of how industrial farming hurts the most marginalized communities through environmental racism, as well as the unethical treatment of the animals. I'm glad I read the book because it shows me that there *is* an alternative that is humane and sustainable. If I were to eat meat in the future, I would definitely want it to be the way Camas describes it - where I know who raised the animals and how, and who butchered it and how. I feel inspired to take butchery classes from her or a similar provider. I don't know that a simple article or the like would have been enough for me to get the inspiration I got from this book BUT, all of that being said, reading this book wasn't always pleasant and I rolled my eyes at the author a lot throughout.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great exploration of the road to learning to butcher, humane treatment of the animals we eat, and the whole animal movement. Davis has become a voice to be heard.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Really got me thinking about meat and our ideas around it. I was already a fan of Fergus Henderson and his ideas but they always seemed too exotic to work in America. Davis shows it can be done here and done well. I may not be ready to hop a plane to France but I am anxious to find local farms in my area and start learning for myself.

[Tuesday H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think we like to hear stories about heroes who have a vision and are brave in the face of adversity, conquering that goal no matter what comes their way because they have conviction and heart. This is not that story. This is an honest story about a woman who in many ways is unsure of who she is, nearly always second-guesses herself, and sort of, but not really has an idea of what she wants to do. Much of the book is her almost blindly searching for a way forward -- and I might add that a lot of us feel this way at some point. Camas succeeds because she doesn't give up on her journey to be more fulfilled and because she has a miraculous network of understanding people who cheer her on, open doors for her, and love her despite the cloud of self-doubt that oft surrounds her. She dives into butchery and then fakes it until she makes it and even then, she's not sure when exactly that she's made it. I like that Camas doesn't paint herself as some butcher savant, a hero, a groundbreaker, or some non-blemished hero. She makes a lot of mistakes -- mostly in her personal life. She also faces many challenges - chief among them the dogma of "what food should be" for many Americans. But because she followed through on her journey and the vision that eventually crystallizes for her, she ends up starting a movement that has the potential to change America's industrial animal agriculture, our relationship to animals, and the future and face of the butchery industry. Meaning the end result of her awkward early mid-life crisis is life changing, not just for herself but America. And she delivers the story in a way that I think is true to who she is, questioning, honest, bare. It would have been easy and perhaps alluring to many to gloss over many aspects that don't exactly put her in the best light. But she doesn't. Although this might make this book harder to read, I found it an honest read.

[Jay bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am sending a huge thank you to the publisher, Penguin, as well as Goodreads for offering this giveaway. This book absolutely blew me away. The author lost her job, had a dream and eventually made it happen. Her dream? To become a butcher. Luckily, her previous job gave her a network to be able to explore the world of whole animal butchering and the people that she meets along the way teach her many things. The writing is amazing, poetic, romantic (yes, the way she talks about food and animals and her journey among farmers and foodies is totally romantic) and entrancing. I could not put this book down. When she was reflective, self-doubting and uncertain, so was I. This book made me want to quit my job and explore a whole other world, but I think I would chase cheese and wine. Don’t get me wrong, I have a whole list of new charcuterie to try, but not a dream to be a lady poet butcher. Great job Camas!!!