Author of the week: Dana Goodyear

last updated 8 January 2015

Dana Goodyear must have a strong stomach, said Amiel Stanek in BonAppetit.com. In her new book, Anything That Moves, the New Yorker staff writer shares numerous stories about sitting down to dine with people who have no problem noshing on whale meat, duck embryos, or ant larvae. While she was game to try almost anything, she learned that she didn’t have much choice. Once, when pregnancy prompted her to turn down an offer of raw chicken and unpasteurized milk, a “primal diet” activist accused her of being a government informant. “It became a sort of hazing ritual,” she says. “I often felt like an undercover DEA agent who had to take a hit to prove that I wasn’t.”

Goodyear developed real respect for her subjects for their willingness to challenge taboos, said Rachel Martin in NPR.org. “I think everybody is something of a hypocrite about what they eat,” she says. Otherwise thoughtful defenders of a dog’s right to not be eaten, she says, more than once have told her, “I know pigs are really smart, and I know the pork industry is really bad for the environment, but I just love bacon.” Often she was told by the foodies who are pushing the envelope that excessive government regulation had inspired such irrationality, pushing most eaters toward thoughtless conformity. “It’s very libertarian, and it’s something I was surprised to hear coming out of the mouths of chefs with two or three Michelin stars,” she says. “I think what this movement has to teach us is that we have prejudices as eaters that are not necessarily