“Karen Davis shines a new light on the unfortunate, much maligned bird that is the center of America’s Thanksgiving ritual, and thereby illuminates the lies and hypocrisy that surround our eating habits and our attitudes to animals. More Than a Meal challenges all Americans to think about the values that they want their annual family ritual to embody, and if it achieves the readership it deserves, tofu turkey sales should soar.”

– Peter Singer, DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University

“I very much like this book for its sensitivity, its well-researched cultural history, its honesty and probing qualities. Through the considerable craft of its author, the turkey is given center stage. Karen Davis engages us in our own rituals and beliefs by taking us to the kitchens and hunting grounds of former centuries. It is a thought-provoking book because we are taken on a journey to look at the unsightly corners of our attitudes and practices of past and present. We cannot possibly like what we see—the cruelty, thoughtlessness and sheer magnitude of butchery so that we may feast. Can we read this rousing book without wishing to improve the lot of these magnificent birds?”

– Gisela Kaplan, Full Professor, School of Biological Sciences,
University of New England, Armidale, Australia

“In a very scholarly way, Karen Davis explores the unnatural history of the turkey, Where did the bird come from? How was it treated by native Americans? What place did the turkey have in their mythology? Why is the turkey called ‘turkey’? (And who would have guessed there could be so many competing theories!) What happened between the turkey being taken to Europe and then reintroduced to North America? How did the bird become so despised in western society? All these questions and many more are dealt with in a serious but engaging way.”

–Ian J.H. Duncan, Professor of Poultry Ethology,
Chair in Animal Welfare, University of Guelph, Ontario