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A review by selenajournal
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
5.0
Eating Animals is Jonathan Safran Foer’s first foray into nonfiction. It documents the journey he undertook as a new father curious about the food he’d eventually feed his son. The book addresses the food that we eat, where it comes from and the industry that has turned agriculture into “agribusiness.”
What readers must understand going into Safran Foer’s book is that it is not a case for vegetarianism or going vegan. It is his three years of research and personal discovery. But that doesn’t mean it is without opinion.
Prior to researching and writing this book, both Foer and his wife bounced back and forth between being vegetarian and eating meat. Upon researching the issue further, Safran Foer has found that the meat we eat is filled with antibiotics to keep it disease free, the chickens and turkeys cannot reproduce because of breeding abnormalities, most of the animals are in constant pain because of these abnormalities, they’re kept in very unhygienic quarters and most people cannot request an audience with these farm-factories because if you could see what they did, you’d never want eat again.
One of the most eye-opening points things he brings up are the new avian and swine flu epidemics. Scientists from Princeton (with the backing of other prestigious schools as well) have been able to trace many of these new strains of the flu to factory farms within the United States (because of the unhygienic and chemically-altered way that we raise animals in factory farms). Birds and pigs are the few animals whose viruses intermingle with ours – often to our detriment. And we continue to eat these animals.
What Safran Foer discusses is taking back the meat industry – in order to do this, we have to support family owned and operated farms. Part of this is education – talking to people about what they’re eating and opening their eyes. The second part is buying meat from family farms – support of those who are producing the kind of food that we feel is ideal. It is absurd to think that all humans will work meat out of their diet. It is not absurd to believe that we can go back to family-owned and operated farms.
I grew up a meat-eater, but my family had their own tiny little farm. My grandmother raised our chickens from birth and we used some of the eggs they laid and killed our chickens when they were nearing their end (humanely and quickly). My grandmother did this herself – in fact, I remember seeing her kill some of the chickens on our farm and I always knew that the chicken I had played with would later bring me nourishment. In that same way, we had a goat for milk and our own vegetable garden. But we lived in Bosnia – where industry had never really been able to bring down individual community farmers. I know that the goats we had and the chickens we had lived healthy and happy lives, they ate as much food as they wanted, frolicked in our yard (at every hour of the day) and were able to reproduce naturally.
I no longer eat meat but make extra efforts to only buy my produce from family farms through the local food markets. Many of the sellers have gotten to know me and I them. And my veggies don’t cost me much more than those from a store but I can say that I know who grows my food, where they grow it and what chemicals it is and is not exposed to. I believe it is worth it to pay for that knowledge because your body is your temple.
Having read this book, I’m making an extra effort to hunt down places that offer meat from family owned farmers because my parents are still meat-eaters. Neither one of them will ever become a vegetarian, which is their own personal choice, but they both want to stay healthy and to do this, the quality of their meat needs to improve.
Safran Foer states that if you are not actively working against factory farms and animal cruelty in “agribusiness” – then you are passively allowing this industry to flourish. Can you argue against that claim?
What readers must understand going into Safran Foer’s book is that it is not a case for vegetarianism or going vegan. It is his three years of research and personal discovery. But that doesn’t mean it is without opinion.
Prior to researching and writing this book, both Foer and his wife bounced back and forth between being vegetarian and eating meat. Upon researching the issue further, Safran Foer has found that the meat we eat is filled with antibiotics to keep it disease free, the chickens and turkeys cannot reproduce because of breeding abnormalities, most of the animals are in constant pain because of these abnormalities, they’re kept in very unhygienic quarters and most people cannot request an audience with these farm-factories because if you could see what they did, you’d never want eat again.
One of the most eye-opening points things he brings up are the new avian and swine flu epidemics. Scientists from Princeton (with the backing of other prestigious schools as well) have been able to trace many of these new strains of the flu to factory farms within the United States (because of the unhygienic and chemically-altered way that we raise animals in factory farms). Birds and pigs are the few animals whose viruses intermingle with ours – often to our detriment. And we continue to eat these animals.
What Safran Foer discusses is taking back the meat industry – in order to do this, we have to support family owned and operated farms. Part of this is education – talking to people about what they’re eating and opening their eyes. The second part is buying meat from family farms – support of those who are producing the kind of food that we feel is ideal. It is absurd to think that all humans will work meat out of their diet. It is not absurd to believe that we can go back to family-owned and operated farms.
I grew up a meat-eater, but my family had their own tiny little farm. My grandmother raised our chickens from birth and we used some of the eggs they laid and killed our chickens when they were nearing their end (humanely and quickly). My grandmother did this herself – in fact, I remember seeing her kill some of the chickens on our farm and I always knew that the chicken I had played with would later bring me nourishment. In that same way, we had a goat for milk and our own vegetable garden. But we lived in Bosnia – where industry had never really been able to bring down individual community farmers. I know that the goats we had and the chickens we had lived healthy and happy lives, they ate as much food as they wanted, frolicked in our yard (at every hour of the day) and were able to reproduce naturally.
I no longer eat meat but make extra efforts to only buy my produce from family farms through the local food markets. Many of the sellers have gotten to know me and I them. And my veggies don’t cost me much more than those from a store but I can say that I know who grows my food, where they grow it and what chemicals it is and is not exposed to. I believe it is worth it to pay for that knowledge because your body is your temple.
Having read this book, I’m making an extra effort to hunt down places that offer meat from family owned farmers because my parents are still meat-eaters. Neither one of them will ever become a vegetarian, which is their own personal choice, but they both want to stay healthy and to do this, the quality of their meat needs to improve.
Safran Foer states that if you are not actively working against factory farms and animal cruelty in “agribusiness” – then you are passively allowing this industry to flourish. Can you argue against that claim?