Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf

When Peter Lovenheim stood in line at McDonald's to buy a Happy Meal for his daughter, which would come with a Teenie Beanie Baby—either a cow named "Daisy" or a bull named "Snort," he found it strange that young children would be expected to play with cuddly toy cows one minute and eat the grilled remains of real ones the next. Lovenheim suddenly saw the disconnect between what we eat and our knowledge of where our food comes from. Determined to understand the process by which living animals become food, Lovenheim bought two calves from the dairy farm where they were born and asked permission to spend as much time as necessary hanging around and observing everything that happened in their lives. This is the 2013 Edition with a new Preface by the author.

When Peter Lovenheim stood in line at McDonald's to buy a Happy Meal for his daughter, which would come with a Teenie Beanie Baby—either a cow named "Daisy" or a bull named "Snort," he found it strange that young children would be expected to play with cuddly toy cows one minute and eat the grilled remains of real ones the next. Lovenheim suddenly saw the disconnect between what we eat and our knowledge of where our food comes from. Determined to understand the process by which living animals become food, Lovenheim bought two calves from the dairy farm where they were born and asked permission to spend as much time as necessary hanging around and observing everything that happened in their lives. Portrait of a Burger is the true story of Lovenheim's hands-on journey into the diary and beef industries as he follows his calves from "conception to consumption." In the process, he gets to know the hard-working people who raise our cattle and make milk products and beef. He supplies us with a "fly on the wall" view of the animals we use to put food on America's tables.

Peter Lovenheim is a journalist whose articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, and other publications. He teaches writing in the Department of English at Rochester Institute of Technology. Lovenheim holds a degree in journalism from Boston University and in law from Cornell Law School. In addition to Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf, he is also author of In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time (Penguin/Perigee, 2010), a work of narrative non-fiction that examines how Americans live as neighbors today. He is also author or co-author of several books for the general reader about mediation and conflict resolution, including Mediate, Don't Litigate: Strategies for Successful Mediation, with Lisa Guerin and Becoming a Mediator: Your Guide to Career Opportunities, with Emily Doskow, both from Nolo Press. His book, Reading Between the Lines, selected and edited with Rabbi David Katz, is a collection of contemporary stories—modern midrash—based on the Hebrew Bible. Peter Lovenheim has three children and lives in Rochester, New York.