Jonathan Safran Foer is one of my favorite authors. I loved his other two books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. By the way, please read the latter book first if you’re planning to see the coming movie. The movie has not gotten great reviews but I was very impressed with the book!
Eating Animals begins with Foer talking about family culture and food. Food, and especially meat, is so ingrained in our traditions and customs that is seems almost sacriligeous–and certainly un-American–to not eat meat. The book is his journey to come to a philosophical, political and moral stance on meat eating, both as an ethical matter and as a matter of ecology–the health of the planet and everyone on it.
Foer’s research is extensive, including visiting factory farms (at times in the dead of the night , as they are not usually open to visitors) as well as visiting the increasingly hard to find traditional farmers and ranchers. The list of disturbing findings is very long, but, to mention only a few, Foer found that tha vast majority of animals bred for consumption were genetically malformed, routinely fed antibiotics, kept in cramped, unsanitary conditions, abused, degraded and cruelly slaughtered. Why should this concern us? Apart from the horrors of these animals’ lives, factory farming is a major contributor to global warming and pandemic disease.
I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my life–a personal decision that I haven’t tried to force on others (although after reading this, my family may be on their own for buying and cooking meat!) I do think, however, that it’s important for people to know exactly where their food comes from, how it gets to their plates, and what impact this will ultimately have on their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren. Eating Animals is not a pleasant book, but one that anyone who eats should read in order to make informed decisions about what they consume and serve to their families.
“The worst it got was near the end. A lot of people died right at the end, and I didn’t know if I could make it another day. A farmer, a Russian, God bless him, he saw my condition, and he went into his house and came out with a piece of meat for me.”
“He saved your life.”
“I didn’t eat it.”
“You didn’t eat it?”
“It was pork, I wouldn’t eat pork.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“What, because it wasn’t kosher?”
“Of course.”
“But not even to save your life?”
“If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save.”
–cary
This books is so powerful. I loved it.