Book Review - Eating Animals

When I decided to change up what I ate, giving up meat was the easiest part. Something has always nagged at me about eating it and I am amazed at the number of people I hear say "I don't really eat/like meat that much." It is something I think we need to take note of. Maybe it is because they are health conscious. Maybe it is because they really don't like the taste. Maybe they are like me and it always felt, well, kinda mean. Even sushi, which I devoured on a weekly basis made me feel a little bit sad.

So why do we eat animals? And should we? 

If you are reading this blog, then there is a good chance you don't eat animals. But I still encourage you to read  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I encourage everyone to read it. It might not turn you off meat, but I have very high doubts that it won't change the way you look at it.

This book is not an all out horror fest or a major guilt trip. (Although there were parts where I cried like really really hard - those of you who know me well, know that I also cry really really hard during commercials about Kleenex) It is a well presented case for not eating factory farmed meat.  And then goes on to ask, why meat at all?

If I can digress for just a sec. I recently went to Herbivore Clothing located in Portland. And I bought a couple of these buttons - 

Factory Farms Are Mean and Nasty

After reading Eating Animals I am haven't purchased factory farmed meat or eggs. And there isn't anything in the future that I can predict will make me do it again. Foer takes it one step further though and says - why eat animals at all? Even if it was raised humanely, killed in the least cruel way possible, you are still killing a sentient being to eat it.

Eating Animals has a interesting cast of farmers, activists, and butchers in the book that give you the whole spectrum of opinion through interviews. While Foer's book clearly leans towards vegetarianism, it isn't a "you're an asshole if you eat meat" kind of book. That is why I suggest it to everyone.

Recently "pink slime" and  cruel condition for battery hens are on the news every night and I feel gratitude to the host of books and movies that are coming out about the way animals are treated and the disgusting things that go on at factory farms both animals wise and food wise. I am grateful that people are taking a closer look at what is on their plate. Eating Animals will help everyone investigate a little further. Check it out at your local library, or you can purchase it here.