Eating Animals [Hardcover]

The author brings a novelist's talent for observation and description to the subject of farmed animals and the people who eat them. It is very engaging and horrifying in just the right measure and I found myself confronted with information I hadn't heard before, despite lots of reading on this topic. I was fascinated with his ethical dilemma and how he took us through it all, both from his point of view and those of others.

His conclusions are not mine, nor is this book the perfect statement of my own philosophy, but I think it is a step in the right direction and it is getting a lot of attention. Martha Stewart had him on her show and she said to her audience, "I think you'll agree with most of what [the author] has to say." Really? I think most of them don't want to hear it. Great quote from J.M Coetzee on the book jacket for those who do dare read it: "The everyday horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against the people who run the system is presented so convincingly, that anyone who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both."

We'll see. Human beings have an amazing capacity for rationalizing their own actions.

Foer's first book of nonfiction is not a rant against meat eaters, but more of a philosophical and meditative investigation on what it means to eat meat in today's society. Through the device of "storytelling" Foer examines the cultural, environmental, ethical, social, and political issues with consuming meat from factory farms, which account for 99% of meat consumption in the U.S. (I'm sure the figure is similar for Canada). His discussion of eating as storytelling was really interesting, in that what we eat tells stories about us as people, but also that storytelling centres around food consumption (think of big family dinners).

To be fair, I'm already a vegetarian, so perhaps some of this book was preaching to the converted. However, I think that anyone with a stomach will get something out of this book. Foer allows farmers, PETA activists, and industry workers to tell their own stories about factory farming and conditions on today's farms and what happens to the animals. In this way, the book is more powerful than other accounts of factory farms and the food industry because (I can't resist saying this) you get it straight from the horse's mouth.

Foer also offers some interesting philosophical and moral discussions of his own, surrounding why we find it inhumane to eat the family dog, but not slaughter other animals. What constitutes "suffering", and which is more important to us: the knowing or the eating. The knowing being knowing about the conditions of the farms where our food comes from, and the eating being the love of consuming of that food. For me, the knowing is more important than the eating, but for many others the eating is more important than the knowing.

This is not a book where you will feel attacked as a meat eater, but it is a strong book and Foer doesn't back down with giving the gruesome details of the factory farm industry. He does advocate for, and include information on, family farms and humane practices and "ethical" meat, so it's not a total downer of a book. In fact, even though much of the book is disturbing, Foer manages to come off as hopeful, and often funny.

A quote I really enjoyed that I think sums up much of the intent of the book is found on page 102: "It's always possible to wake someone from sleep, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to be asleep." Or, in other words, for those that pretend to be asleep, the eating is more important than the knowing, so they choose forget the knowing and continue to eat. Hopefully this book will help change that, as it's impossible to forget the scenes described by Foer and industry workers in this book.

This book is a collection of personal stories and philosophical reflections - some humorous, others troubling - the author uses it to make a very significant point about our somewhat questionable relationship with the animal world around us. As top of the food chain, we have come to rely on certain domestic animals like cattle, chickens and pigs for our main food sources. This heavy reliance on red meat or animal protein has become a traditional part of our North American culture as reflected in the millions of animals slaughtered each year in readiness for our dinner tables. This dependence on meat as a mainstay of our diet, while not altogether healthy, is not the issue that Foer focuses on here. While a Vegan in his dietary preferences, Foer does show some understanding why most of us come honestly by our need for meat: a desire for flavour, an instinct for herding, and the need to provide for one's family are some of the key compulsions. Having made that point clear, Foer launches into a discussion of how present society has come to mistreat animals it raises to eat. From the floors of the modern food factories and slaughter houses of America comes an updated version of the horrors of the meat industry described in Upton Sinclair's 19th century "Jungle". Based on Foer's sources, the meat we normally consume on a daily basis has been raised under some of the most appallingly cruel conditions known to humankind. Turkeys clubbed and electrocuted, thousands of pigs squeezed into small, poorly-ventilated pens, and calves forced to live in their own execrement are all conditions that speak to an industry that puts profit ahead of humanity. Foer's challenge to each of us meat-lovers is to start adopting an ethos that credits animals with having feelings and emotions that need to be respected even if they are a lower part of the food chain. If we don't, we will invite all kinds of soci-economic problems from destroying the environment to causing the outbreak of some serious pandemics. When I read his colorful description of growing up in a well-to-do Jewish-American home, I got the distinct impression he did not feel comfortable describing the convenient lifestyle that has bred this wretched problem of animal abuse. To show his readers an alternative way to raising animals for food on a large scale, Foer offers examples of husbandry with a conscience: small farms and cooperatives that raise and produce their meat under the strictest standards of public hygiene and respect for the animals. While I still love my BBQ steaks and pork ribs, Foer's very thoughtful study on the nature of the food industry has given me cause to educate myself as to how ranches, hatcheries, and slaughterhouses raise their produce for market. Have we come to assume, in our abundant lifestyle, that we are no longer morally responsible for how we handle our food resources, especially the living ones? If so, think again and read this book.