When documentary maker Jane Takagi-Little finally lands a job producing a Japanese television show that just happens to be sponsored by an American meat-exporting business, she uncovers some unsavoury truths about love, fertility, and a dangerous hormone called Diethylstilbestrol (DES). Soon she will also cross paths with Akiko Ueno, a beleaguered Japanese housewife struggling to escape her overbearing husband. And the battle with ‘big beef’ will be on in earnest.
DES is incorporated into the plot, but appears more centrally at the novel’s end than at its beginning. My Year of Meats follows a bi-racial filmmaker named Jane as she makes a series of episodes for Japanese television about how American women prepare beef – Jane’s work is paid for and sponsored by BEEF-EX, a US-based meat lobby seeking to expand its market in Japan. Jane films a series of US families, each of them making a beef-based dinner. Along the way, Jane – who is a DES daughter – investigates the beef industry in the US, the use of DES in cattle feed, and the effects of DES on people exposed to DES in the food industry and agribusiness as well as in medicine.
Ruth Ozeki‘s much-loved debut novel, winner of the Kirayama Prize for Literature of the Pacific Rim, represents the entertaining face of ecological activism. My Year of Meats will delight fans of Michael Pollan, Margaret Atwood and Barbara Kingsolver. Find it on Amazon – on GoodReads.
Related Posts
- How did You get your Dose of DES? with Chicken, Turkey, Beef or Vitamin Supplement?
- Read the Stilbosol story and all our posts tagged Stilbosol.
Related Books
- Cancer from Beef: DES, Federal Food Regulation, and Consumer Confidence,
by Marcus, Alan I, 1994. - The Newest Knowledge of Nutrition: Wise Burroughs, DES, and Modern Meat,
by Marcus, Alan I. 1993.
More DES DiEthylStilbestrol Resources
- DES studies on cancers and screening.
- DES studies on epigenetics and transgenerational effects.
- DES studies on fertility and pregnancy.
- DES studies on gender identity and psychological health.
- DES studies on in-utero exposure to DES and side-effects.
- DES studies on the genital tract.
- Papers on DES lawsuits.
- DES videos and posts tagged DES, the DES-exposed, DES victims.
