Eating Animals

By the time I was 22 years old I had been a vegetarian for 8 years after the experience I had working on an organic farm in upstate New York. I grew attached to the farm animals whom acted as my pets, while caring for them one summer. In the end I was unable to be consoled by the farm’s unofficial motto, “They have a great life, but just have one bad day,” I decided I would never eat meat again. At 13 years old and highly impressionable, I watched various videos and documentaries in horror witnessing the horrible treatment of factory farmed animals. This had sealed my fate. 

For the last couple of years I have struggled with whether or not the complete removal of animal product is healthy. For awhile I had become malnourished because I was not getting the proper nutrition with my meat substitutions. And for almost a year now I had made the conscious decision to go from vegetarian to omnivore. What is important and most clear to me is the decision to not eat factory farmed animals or product. Consuming factory farmed animals I believe is unethical, has negative effects on human health, negative environmental impact and obviously bad for animal welfare.

I was able to easily fall back into an omnivorous diet, but now leaning back to vegetarianism or maybe just eating organically, cutting out certain products has been a challenge purely because of laziness. For this blog I want to delve into the books that discuss the benefits of being a vegetarian but also the books that argue why we should not have meat in our diet. I want to talk about the books that will give motivation to people like myself that want to make a lifestyle change, a decision to lead a happier, healthier life physically and mentally. 

The first book I want to discuss a little about Jonathan Safran Foer’s non-fiction book, Eating Animals. Foer recounts how he spent his teen and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian, just like myself. When Foer's first child is about to be born he takes a journey to which ultimately will help him make the decision on his child’s behalf; vegetarianism, to be or not to be? Foer explores the reasons we use to justify our eating habits; family traditions, myth, pop culture, fact and fiction. Foer visits turkey factory farm in the middle of the night and witnesses its inhumane methods. He describes genetically freakish animals, which many of whom can’t walk or mate, live in tiny cages in windowless sheds, meeting their fates with horrendous mutilation and sloppy slaughtering, some of which get boiled or skinned alive. He explains how unprofitable babies are disposed of in the most cruel ways: electrocution, chippers, even bashed into concrete floors. A good example of how I would sum up this part of the book is with a quote by Foer’s guide at the turkey farm, “The truth is so powerful in this case it doesn’t even matter what your angle is.” Eating Animals is about Foer’s personal experiences but I find the facts of factory farming more compelling than his stories about his grandmother and family. He also explore the health risks which permeate factory faming, like the claims that H1N1 originated in a North Caroline factory farm, 98 percent of American chicken is infected with campylobacter or salmonella at the time of consumption.

I found Foer’s book to be powerful and in the end he settles with the vegetarian option. Although, he states that eating humanely raised meat, if it’s available to you, maybe isn’t so bad. The conclusion was predictable and fairly sensible, but I wish that Foer had a stronger stance at the end.