Eating Animals [Hardcover]

Jonathan Safran Foer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The latest from novelist Foer is a surprising but characteristically brilliant memoir-investigation, boasting an exhaustively-argued account of one man-child's decade-long struggle with vegetarianism. On the eve of becoming a father, Foer takes all the arguments for and against vegetarianism a neurotic step beyond and, to decide how to feed his coming baby, investigates everything from the intelligence level of our most popular meat providers-cattle, pigs, and poultry-to the specious self-justifications (his own included) for eating some meat products and not others. Foer offers a lighthearted counterpoint to his investigation in doting portraits of his loving grandmother, and her meat-and-potatoes comfort food, leaving him to wrestle with the comparative weight of food's socio-cultural significance and its economic-moral-political meaning. Without pulling any punches-factory farming is given the full expose treatment-Foer combines an array of facts, astutely-written anecdotes, and his furious, inward-spinning energy to make a personal, highly entertaining take on an increasingly visible (and book-selling) moral question; call it, perhaps, An Omnivore's Dilemma.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* If this book were packaged like a loaf of bread, its Nutrition Facts box would list high percentages of graphic descriptions of factory farm methods of animal breeding, mass confinement, and assembly-line slaughter as well as the brutality and waste of high-tech fishing methods; fresh studies of animal (fish included) intelligence and their capacity for suffering; and undiluted facts about industrial animal agriculture’s major role in global warming. Sensitive to the centrality of food in culture and family life, Foer, author of the novels Everything Is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), frames his first nonfiction book within the story of his Holocaust survivor grandmother’s complex relationship with food and his response to fatherhood. He presents assiduously assembled facts (supported by70 pages of end notes) about the miserable lives and deaths of industrialized chickens, pigs, fish, and cattle and about agricultural pollution and how factory farming engenders species-leaping flu pandemics. He also asks philosophical questions, such as why we eat such smart and affectionate animals as pigs but not dogs. Foer brings extraordinary artistry, clarity, valor, and compassion to this staggering investigation into the ethics, horrors, and dangers of factory farming. An indelible book that should reach a diverse audience and deepen the conversation about how best to live on a rapidly changing planet. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (November 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316069906
• ISBN-13: 978-0316069908
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (194 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #18,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #17 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > Essays
  #47 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Vegan
  #10 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Nature & Ecology > Animal Rights

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

246 of 277 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book on the Food Industry and Foer's Most Important, October 18, 2009

By	ThinkAboutFood "FDG" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eating Animals (Hardcover)

The buzz about this book was so incredible I had to get my hands on an advanced copy. The book is like nothing else ever written on the food industry. It reads like a novel, is funny, incredibly well documented, and lets factory farmers and animal activists speak in their own words. I've read a lot of books on the food industry and this is by far the best. It makes other writers, even Michael Pollan, look a bit timid. Foer never preaches. He shares his own beliefs and asks us to live by our own standards, not his. Foer reveals a lot of personal information here and, since this is his first nonfiction book, it its especially interesting for readers of his previous books to see some of the fact behind his fiction. The material about his grandmother and how she survived the holocaust is really powerful. The stuff about his dog George (Foer makes a mock case for eating dogs) is hilarious. His storytelling is so compelling that you hardly realize how much information he's conveying (there are 60 pages of notes documenting his sources, but the text itself is uncluttered by footnotes). Another unique thing about this book is that Foer actually sneaks into a factory farm in the middle of the night... Eating Animals is a serious book that could change the way you live. But what's most impressive about it is that it is also fun to read, which is exactly what we need on a hot button topic like the contemporary food industry.

161 of 183 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars changing my ways, October 19, 2009

By	Glenn Gutterman "Glenn" (Westfield, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eating Animals (Hardcover)

I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I identified with Foer as a person who really tries to eat ethically, but whose weaknesses often get the best of him. I've had strong intuitions that there is something wrong with Meat today, but, like Foer reports of his own journey, those intuitions have not been strong enough for me to really change what I eat. The woman in my life, by contrast, has been a vegetarian for over a decade and never wavers. Of the many changes I've made to accommodate our relationship, giving up meat was never one of them. I've generally let the smell of bacon silence any discomfort I had with meat. That is, until reading Eating Animals. Foer's personal narrative spoke to me more than any of the many exposes on factory farming slyly sent my way. At the same time, Eating Animals left me far more informed than I was before ... It's the standard cliché, but I really couldn't put the book down. In place of the didactic or moralistic, Foer welcomes the reader into his life and his story. Foer is his own main character, and his own self-examination inspires the same. You won't be the same after reading it.

85 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound, October 29, 2009

By	Jane Russell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eating Animals (Hardcover)

I appreciate the honest look at the meat production industry presented in this book. Most of all I like the style with which Foer communicates his findings. The author reveals a lot of personal information but he also asks the readers to live by their own standards, not his. All that makes it for an easy and even enjoyable reading of a lifestyle book which nonetheless reads like a novel.

Eating Animals is a very inspiring and informative book. I wholeheartedly encourage everybody to consider reading it. Even -- or maybe, especially if -- you are not a vegetarian. It definitely changed the way I view the world. It might do the same to you. And if not, you will at least enjoy reading a book that not only educates but also entertains. And one more thing that I can promise each and every reader -- THIS BOOK WILL REALLY MAKE YOU THINK AND FORCE YOU TO MAKE PROFOUND CHOICES WHICH WILL AFFECT THE WAY YOU LIVE THE REMAINING PART OF YOUR LIFE.

I noticed that some reviewers mention "The Omnivore's Dilemma" as a companion to this book. In my opinion it would be reading the same just by another author. To get a broader view at nutrition and how it affects our health, our longevity, and the world around us I suggest reading "Can we Lve 150 Years" instead.