Eating Animals
Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is the groundbreaking moral examination of vegetarianism, farming, and the food we eat every day that inspired the documentary of the same name. Bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. For years he was content to live with uncertainty about his own dietary choices but once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important. Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions and the fictions involved with creating them. Traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer raises the unspoken question behind every fish we eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we grill. Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is a book that, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, places Jonathan Safran Foer "at the table with our greatest philosophers" -and a must-read for anyone who cares about building a more humane and healthy world.
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Community Reviews
The case Against factory farming
Foer describes his own journey to vegetarianism. He describes how farmed animals are raised and killed in the most brutal of conditions. The author also interviews farmers who are involved in raising farmed animals. I would think it would be hard to support factory farming after reading this book.
Foer describes his own journey to vegetarianism. He describes how farmed animals are raised and killed in the most brutal of conditions. The author also interviews farmers who are involved in raising farmed animals. I would think it would be hard to support factory farming after reading this book.
Rarely is there a piece of literature that discusses the issues of "eating animals" without preaching tones and a self-righteous attitude, which makes the reader/listener roll their eyes and say "here we go again".
As with 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins (which I think everyone whether religion or otherwise should read), likewise I believe anyone who eats animals and even those who don't should read (or at least consider reading) "Eating Animals".
Jonathan Safran Foer approaches the subject of the consumption of animals in a curious, genteel and, more importantly, non-threatening way. Whenever omnivores are presented with the notion that eating flesh can be a conscious decision rather than simply the "done thing"; defences are raised. This book presents information and simply asks you to consider it and, above all else, to care about many of the issues we chose more often than not to overlook in preference for ignorance.
In particular I found the discussion of the 'species barrier', which explains how we - as humans - perceive some animals worthy of our attention (and therefore inexcusable for us to mistreat and abuse) and those which we perceive unworthy to be especially interesting.
For example, how we would find gaffing (a gaff is a pole with a sharp hook on the end that is used to stab a large fish and then lift the fish into the boat) a dog would be completely unacceptable and yet we think nothing of doing the same to a fish simply because it is a fish. Or how cutting the beak, wings and feet of a pet budgerigar would be inhuman and cruel but we do the very same to a bird we might eventually eat. This is the species barrier. It allows us to permit the abuse and torture of certain species of animals and find it completely abhorrent and intolerable in consideration to others.
The main focus of this book - as I perceive it - is not to "turn people vegetarian" but to enable people to consider, without feeling vilified , their choices when it comes to eating or not eating meat. I would highly recommend this book to anyone; Jonathan Safran Foer raises issues everyone should take the time to think about seriously and he does so in a non-judgemental, purely factual manner that meat-eaters feel no need to shy away from or become defensive about.
As with 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins (which I think everyone whether religion or otherwise should read), likewise I believe anyone who eats animals and even those who don't should read (or at least consider reading) "Eating Animals".
Jonathan Safran Foer approaches the subject of the consumption of animals in a curious, genteel and, more importantly, non-threatening way. Whenever omnivores are presented with the notion that eating flesh can be a conscious decision rather than simply the "done thing"; defences are raised. This book presents information and simply asks you to consider it and, above all else, to care about many of the issues we chose more often than not to overlook in preference for ignorance.
In particular I found the discussion of the 'species barrier', which explains how we - as humans - perceive some animals worthy of our attention (and therefore inexcusable for us to mistreat and abuse) and those which we perceive unworthy to be especially interesting.
For example, how we would find gaffing (a gaff is a pole with a sharp hook on the end that is used to stab a large fish and then lift the fish into the boat) a dog would be completely unacceptable and yet we think nothing of doing the same to a fish simply because it is a fish. Or how cutting the beak, wings and feet of a pet budgerigar would be inhuman and cruel but we do the very same to a bird we might eventually eat. This is the species barrier. It allows us to permit the abuse and torture of certain species of animals and find it completely abhorrent and intolerable in consideration to others.
The main focus of this book - as I perceive it - is not to "turn people vegetarian" but to enable people to consider, without feeling vilified , their choices when it comes to eating or not eating meat. I would highly recommend this book to anyone; Jonathan Safran Foer raises issues everyone should take the time to think about seriously and he does so in a non-judgemental, purely factual manner that meat-eaters feel no need to shy away from or become defensive about.
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