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joylesnick 's review for:
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
by Jonathan Safran Foer
So most people *know* that the planet is warming in ways that will soon be irreversible. Even so, most people aren't *doing* much that will help. Myself included. It took Safran Foer 63 pages to get to the point of the book - which is a call to action: as a society we need to eat fewer animal products. Because factory farms are a leading cause of climate change. All the other small things we do - recycle, compost, drive hybrid cars, etc. - barely make a dent (though we should still do them, there's just so small compared to factory farms).
Throughout the book, Safran Foer takes a lot of different approaches to try to convince the reader to eat more plant-based meals: from roundabout story telling to conversations with himself to bullet point lists of facts to connections to personal history, World Wars, suicide, and more. It doesn't make for the greatest writing or reading, as it felt like he was trying out different ways to connect with lots of readers (some of which resonated with me and some that didn't). That said, it did give me something I can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - and a way to do it - eat vegan for breakfast and lunch.
Times have changed. We have to change how things have always been done. Some quotes I really liked: "Eating blamelessly two generations ago is not the same as eating blamelessly in the age of the factory farm."
"No one driver can cause a traffic jam. But no traffic jam can exist without individual drivers. We are stuck in traffic because we are the traffic. The ways we live our lives, the actions we take and don't take, can feed the systemic problems, and they can also change them."
I received this book as a goodreads giveaway (my first!) As I was reading it there was a NYTimes OpEd about entitled "Stop Mocking Vegans" (8/28/19). I have been guilty of mocking vegans. After reading this book I realize I was very wrong. I am going to try to remove meat, dairy, and cheese from my breakfast and lunch diet. So that's worth at least 4 stars, right?
Throughout the book, Safran Foer takes a lot of different approaches to try to convince the reader to eat more plant-based meals: from roundabout story telling to conversations with himself to bullet point lists of facts to connections to personal history, World Wars, suicide, and more. It doesn't make for the greatest writing or reading, as it felt like he was trying out different ways to connect with lots of readers (some of which resonated with me and some that didn't). That said, it did give me something I can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - and a way to do it - eat vegan for breakfast and lunch.
Times have changed. We have to change how things have always been done. Some quotes I really liked: "Eating blamelessly two generations ago is not the same as eating blamelessly in the age of the factory farm."
"No one driver can cause a traffic jam. But no traffic jam can exist without individual drivers. We are stuck in traffic because we are the traffic. The ways we live our lives, the actions we take and don't take, can feed the systemic problems, and they can also change them."
I received this book as a goodreads giveaway (my first!) As I was reading it there was a NYTimes OpEd about entitled "Stop Mocking Vegans" (8/28/19). I have been guilty of mocking vegans. After reading this book I realize I was very wrong. I am going to try to remove meat, dairy, and cheese from my breakfast and lunch diet. So that's worth at least 4 stars, right?