On a personal level, Ishmael was one of the most important books I've read.

It is the case that consumption is not a choice, whereas the attempted genocide of the Jews, and other groups slated for mass murder, was a choice. To be alive is to consume from the environment--even for plants. The best we can do is to consume as "slowly" and "wisely" as possible. At some point for Homo sapiens to continue to exist we must reach a state of environmental stasis, in which we are returning to nature all we take--like plants.