Eating Animals

The facts of this book are not a huge surprise, particularly if you're at all familiar with factory farming. But as Foer points out, straightforward and clear statistics are the basis of any rational discussion about global food production, so he thinks they are worth laying out again.

Probably the most interesting discussion in this book (to me) is about what kind of food systems conscientious consumers should support– Foer is rightly concerned that simply opting out of eating factory-farmed meat does nothing to alter how the rest of the world eats.

“Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn't motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn't enough, what is?”

This book is absolutely the most well-written, well-researched, and overall compelling argument for vegetarianism on ethical/environmental grounds. The author's argument is so tight, yet undemanding, that it seems irrefutable (I would like to see someone refute it).

Admittedly, reading this was preaching to the choir; I've been vegetarian for years now, vegan for 2 of those. But even I was astonished by what I read, and was given more to ponder about what it means to eat meat, and felt more empowered by my own decision not to.

Could not recommend this book enough, regardless of your current dietary choices, as I assure you it is illuminating.

The short story: DO NOT read this book if you don't want to feel horrifically guilty about eating animals. DO read this book if you want to understand why a celebrity author death match between JSF and Michael Pollan would be epic in the way that would blow UFC title matches out of the water.

The longer story: The three stars are for the book itself (which I thought was good, but not remarkably well-written), not the book's effect on me (it's more of a five-star book in that regard). Anyway, ::obligatory and self-indulgent whining about how grad school really interferes with reading for fun::, so at some point, I put this book down when I felt like Safran Foer was being really preachy (although lord knows he can do no sin when writing novels!), and then didn't return to it for a month or two. I'm not sure whether to attribute my hiatus to needing something lighter to read, or to JSF needing to get to the goddamn point. Either way, once he got there, he convinced me not to eat chicken again, and to contemplate total vegetarianism as well. That's not the hugest leap for me, given that I stopped eating red meat & pork in the third or fourth grade, but it's a leap nonetheless. Every liberal-minded person I know knows that factory farming is an abomination, but very few people I know have actually changed their eating behaviors based on that knowledge, and I'm tired of not being one of the very few (although hopefully not “very few” forever, or even for very long). I guess it's kind of nice when reading inspires change. And props to my roommate for setting an excellent example in both the reading of this book and her switch to vegetarianism.

A favorite quote: “It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable. Cruel and destructive food products should be made illegal. We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabelled side effects. And we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals.”