Eating Animals
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Eating Animals is a scattershot collection of arguments, anecdotes, interviews, childhood memories, and definitions unified by a purpose: a rational discussion of eating animals.
Why the amalgam? Why not a straightforward essay on the morality of meat-eating or a discussion of the cruelty of industrial farming?
To describe what he sees on a nocturnal visit to an industrial farm Foer writes: ‘Next to the sheds stands a huge seed silo that looks more like something out of Blade Runner than Little House on the Prairie.’ (page 112*)
Blade Runner compared to Little House on the Prairie, hmm. Most people I know would imagine the latter when thinking about farms.
So you can see, for the book to make an impression at all, erroneous perspectives need to be removed.
A straightforward approach won’t work for a topic as complicated as meat consumption.
Foer’s motivation for researching the meat insdustry comes from the prospect of his son’s upcoming birth. The reverence with which he comes to the topic comes from his family’s complicated history with food, trauma, culture, and identity.
From there, Eating Animals’ layout skips from point to point.
That Foer changes topic and writing style so often breaks the tediousness of reading a long morally-tinged text into manageable chunks. And by discussing various points, Foer covers the most important arguments against eating animals.
Foer studs many of his arguments with an inescapable logic that carries the weight of a sledgehammer.
For example:
Why should a horny man have less right to rape an animal than a hungry person to kill one and eat it? It’s easy to dismiss this question, but very hard to answer. Or how would you judge an artist who mutilates animals in a gallery because it’s visually captivating? How fascinating would the screams of a tortured animal have to be for you to really want to hear them? Try to imagine a purpose other than tasting them, so that it would be justifiable to do what we do to farm animals. (Page 122)*
Eating Animals is not a book that I would recommend to everyone. Meat consumption is very dear to many people. As Foer himself points out, ‘Food choices are determined by many factors, but reason (and even conscience) is rarely at the top of the list.’ (Page 47)*
Nor would I recommend Eating Animals a second time – but only because most points stick the first time. It is best suited for people who are orbiting around the idea of becoming vegan or vegetarian.
For these special few, Eating Animals will surely provide them with the information and moral righteousness to finally make the positive change they are ready for.
Translations of quotes come from deepl: https://www.deepl.com/es/translator
Have you read Eating Animals? Are you a Vegan or Vegetarian, and if so, why? Do you have experience working on a farm, any thoughts on the topic?