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A review by shestoodakimbo
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
5.0
“I don’t want to read that because I don’t want to have to stop eating meat.” This statement, recently directed my way when I recommended this book, sounded like the most absurd thing I’d ever heard. There’s a disconnect in our modern food consumption where we are willfully ignoring what we know to be truths about the industry. We all have a gut feeling, if not actual knowledge, that something isn’t quite right.
It took quite a bit of reflection as I was finishing the book to realize that as absurd as that statement sounded, it’s EXACTLY why I haven’t read this or similar books or watched any of the number of documentaries readily available out there showing exactly what it is we are deciding to do when we decide to buy and consume meat at the rate we do.
I’m not going to sit here and tell anyone what to do. I’m not going to get graphic, share details, give statistics. This isn’t my soapbox. I can honestly say that less than three months ago I was sitting in a steakhouse in Wyoming swearing up and down that I could NEVER be a vegetarian. I would have rolled my eyes at anyone who tried to convince me otherwise.
I will, however, strongly encourage you to read this book. Safran Foer does an amazing job making his case, not against eating meat, but against the factory farm. He himself chose to write this after digging into the industry for his own personal education while trying to decide how he was going to feed his child and what he wanted to teach his son about food. His writing is wonderful and his research is extensive (3 years worth culminating in over 100 pages at the end of the book of footnotes with sources.)
I still don’t know where I stand on eating animals, but I do know where I stand on the source of 99% of the meat readily available. As with all things, I encourage research and education and drawing your own conclusions, I will say, this is a wonderful place to start.
It took quite a bit of reflection as I was finishing the book to realize that as absurd as that statement sounded, it’s EXACTLY why I haven’t read this or similar books or watched any of the number of documentaries readily available out there showing exactly what it is we are deciding to do when we decide to buy and consume meat at the rate we do.
I’m not going to sit here and tell anyone what to do. I’m not going to get graphic, share details, give statistics. This isn’t my soapbox. I can honestly say that less than three months ago I was sitting in a steakhouse in Wyoming swearing up and down that I could NEVER be a vegetarian. I would have rolled my eyes at anyone who tried to convince me otherwise.
I will, however, strongly encourage you to read this book. Safran Foer does an amazing job making his case, not against eating meat, but against the factory farm. He himself chose to write this after digging into the industry for his own personal education while trying to decide how he was going to feed his child and what he wanted to teach his son about food. His writing is wonderful and his research is extensive (3 years worth culminating in over 100 pages at the end of the book of footnotes with sources.)
I still don’t know where I stand on eating animals, but I do know where I stand on the source of 99% of the meat readily available. As with all things, I encourage research and education and drawing your own conclusions, I will say, this is a wonderful place to start.