Lierre Keith
Encyclopedia
Lierre Keith is an American writer, radical feminist, food activist, and radical environmentalist.
in Massachusetts. During this same period she also volunteered with a group called Women Against Violence Against Women in Cambridge
, where she participated in educational events and protest campaigns. In 1984 she was a founding member of Minor Disturbance, a protest group against militarism from a feminist perspective. In 1986 she was a founding member of Feminists Against Pornography in Northampton, Massachusetts
. She is a founding editor of Rain and Thunder, a radical feminist journal in Northampton.
As an activist on feminism and more recently ecological issues, Keith has had many appearances, interviews and speeches around the United States and Canada.
Keith was an early public advocate of the American local food
movement. In a 2006 Boston Globe human interest story, she said ``I like knowing that I'm supporting the local economy and not corporate America."
Her views have attracted negative attention from some vegetarians, what one journalist has called a "Vegan War". Illustrative of the heated political debate, protesters pied
Keith during a presentation of her book The Vegetarian Myth at the 2010 Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair.
. Keith includes “slavery, imperialism, militarism, class divisions, chronic hunger, and disease” as historical outcomes of over-dependence on mass cultivation.
Pulitzer Prize
-winning author Alice Walker
endorsed it, saying "[The Vegetarian Myth] is one of the most important books people, masses of them, can read, as we try with all our might, intelligence, skill, hope, dream, and memory, to turn the disastrous course the planet is on."
movement, and together with Aric McBay and Derrick Jensen
, she co-wrote Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, published in May 2011. This book describes itself as a "manual on how to build a resistance movement that will bring down industrial civilization and save the planet." It "evaluates strategic options for resistance, from nonviolence to guerrilla warfare, and the conditions required for those options to be successful. It provides an exploration of organizational structures, recruitment, security, and target selection for both above-ground and underground action."
Biography
Keith began her public involvement in the feminist movement in high school, where she was the founding Editor of Vanessa and Iris: A Journal for Young Feminists (1983–85), at Brookline High SchoolBrookline High School
Brookline High School is a four-year public high school in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, in the United States.As of the 2007-08 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,826 students and 136 teachers , for a student-teacher ratio of 13.4 to 1 teacher.-Education:Almost every senior in...
in Massachusetts. During this same period she also volunteered with a group called Women Against Violence Against Women in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, where she participated in educational events and protest campaigns. In 1984 she was a founding member of Minor Disturbance, a protest group against militarism from a feminist perspective. In 1986 she was a founding member of Feminists Against Pornography in Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
. She is a founding editor of Rain and Thunder, a radical feminist journal in Northampton.
As an activist on feminism and more recently ecological issues, Keith has had many appearances, interviews and speeches around the United States and Canada.
Keith was an early public advocate of the American local food
Local food
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
movement. In a 2006 Boston Globe human interest story, she said ``I like knowing that I'm supporting the local economy and not corporate America."
Her views have attracted negative attention from some vegetarians, what one journalist has called a "Vegan War". Illustrative of the heated political debate, protesters pied
Pieing
Pieing is the act of throwing a pie at a person or persons. This can be a political action when the target is an authority figure, politician, or celebrity and can be used as a means of protesting against the target's political beliefs, or against perceived arrogance or vanity. Perpetrators...
Keith during a presentation of her book The Vegetarian Myth at the 2010 Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair.
The Vegetarian Myth
Keith's 2009 book The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability is an examination of the ecological effects of agriculture and vegetarianism. In The Vegetarian Myth, she sees agriculture as destroying entire ecosystems, such as the North American prairie.. Agriculture also destroys topsoilTopsoil
Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...
. Keith includes “slavery, imperialism, militarism, class divisions, chronic hunger, and disease” as historical outcomes of over-dependence on mass cultivation.
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning author Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
endorsed it, saying "[The Vegetarian Myth] is one of the most important books people, masses of them, can read, as we try with all our might, intelligence, skill, hope, dream, and memory, to turn the disastrous course the planet is on."
Deep Green Resistance
Keith is associated with the Deep Green ResistanceDeep Green Resistance
Deep Green Resistance is a perspective emerging from the current environmental movement that views mainstream environmental activism as being largely ineffective.- Beliefs :...
movement, and together with Aric McBay and Derrick Jensen
Derrick Jensen
Derrick Jensen is an American author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California. Jensen has published several books questioning and critiquing modern civilization and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He holds a B.S...
, she co-wrote Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, published in May 2011. This book describes itself as a "manual on how to build a resistance movement that will bring down industrial civilization and save the planet." It "evaluates strategic options for resistance, from nonviolence to guerrilla warfare, and the conditions required for those options to be successful. It provides an exploration of organizational structures, recruitment, security, and target selection for both above-ground and underground action."
Works
- Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, Seven Stories Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1583229293
- The Vegetarian Myth, PM Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1604860801 (also in Swedish).
- Skyler Gabriel, Fighting Words Pr, 1995. ISBN 978-0963266026
- Conditions of War. Fighting Words Pr, 1993. ISBN 978-0963266019
External links
- Lierre Keith, official website.
- Interview with Lierre Keith, by Aric McBay, InTheWake, ca. 2005. (original archive copy).
- The Vegetarian Myth review, Jill Nienhiser, published in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, Summer 2009, Weston A. Price Foundation.
- Interview with Lierre Keith by Ian McKenzie, on Why Agriculture is Destroying the Planet