Eating Animals Hardcover – November 2, 2009

This book was a catalyst where I wasn't looking for one. After the first 35 pages a light bulb started lighting up...and I feared my life was about to change. I've never written a book review, but after reading what Jonathon learned in his 3 + years of researching factory farming, I had to tell others to read it. He provides serious, horrific and real information. I never knew about factory farming until I read his book and googled 'factory farming' on the web. It was all over from there. I started watching those videos on what we do to animals-the ones we don't want to see-and I could not stomach another bite of an animal again. I loved meat, ate it easily 3xday for all of my life, grew up near those green pastures in northern California where cows graze all day. Wow. Was I disconnected and fooled...

What I felt, was that he did not preach about not eating animals. He presented information that I could personally relate to and grasp. For me, Jonathon felt like a messenger...where many have failed to bring light to what humans are systematically doing to animals every moment of every day. He provided very important information about 99% of the animals I used to buy and eat for my family and friends. I had no idea that the US alone consumes 10 billion animals PER YEAR. I finally woke up. One chicken has 2 wings(that they never use)--how many chicken wings come in a basket at a restaurant-6? 12? 24? I used to throw meat away after getting full. I was throwing away a life-a wasted one who suffered in life and in death. What frightened me more about this book is why is an author bringing this info to me? Where are the ongoing news specials on this?

Jonathon's personal tone, statistical/historical data, research team, true accounts from the field, letters, etc., left me no choice than to agree with him. Of course, he is not a farm owner, hasn't worked on a farm, and can't come from a place of truly understanding 'farming'. And he doesn't shun farming, he actually helped me realize that the farming I thought ALL animals came from--humane ones--are actually a miniscule percentage of all farms. His writing is heartwarming, but gut-wrenching. His occasional wit about the insanity of factory farming made me laugh quietly, but kept me awake at night thinking & fretting.

Eating Animals forced me to realize the terrifying component of being lied to by these factory farms and the megacorporations that support them. I used to pay extra for organic milk & cage free eggs because I believed in Horizon Farms. I thought I was making a better choice for the animals. Ultimately, the author woke me up from a deep, deep sleep. As he eloquently presents about turkeys, how can we celebrate 'thanks' and 'family' or whatever tradition you have on Thanksgiving while the main course never saw the sun, felt the earth, a breath of fresh air, had his beak seared off with a hot blade and no pain killers, lived on top of thousands of other turkey's and their excrement, thrown into trucks for transport hundreds of miles without food or water, and never had one true moment of 'love.' If having a better understanding of what love means to you, read this book.

It is very hard to write a review of this book without expressing one's own view of the ethics of meat eating, as most of the reviews - and many of the comments to some of these reviews - demonstrate. In fact, it is impossible to really separate the two when discussing a book that is both so personal in its narrative, and relentlessly focused on universal eating habits. My review is no different.

Taking a stab at the book itself: I am not familiar with Foer's fictional works, but his background is evident as he lends the whole subject a compelling narrative and style that really make "Eating Animals" quite a page-turner (I read it in a day and a half). To those familiar with this debate, the statistics are not really new, nor are the horror stories of factory farming. What is new is the personalization of his approach (I too am a father and could relate to the decisions he faces), and, most effectively, his unflinching, relentless, repetitious focus on the reality of consuming 99% of the available meat today: The environmental damage, the suffering, the waste, the lies and corruption, the exploitation, the veil of secrecy amongst the industrial farming concerns. It is Foer's relentless focus of these central issues and his unwillingness to avoid the obvious question (How can it be ethical to consume meat under these conditions?) that I believe distinguish this book and make it most effective.

So what does this mean to this reviewer in terms of his personal habits? Well, I am a long-time consumer of meat. I love everything about it in terms of taste, texture, variety, preparation, culture, etc. I am a serious hobbyist-cook, and meat has played a central role in what I prepare...Though largely tolerant/indifferent to others' eating habits, I have been largely turned off by the vegetarian and (especially) vegan communities as a whole. I have long viewed veganism as another example of our (U.S.) puritanical tradition of extreme reaction and self-denial to complex moral issues, married up with our (U.S.) lack of a strong, traditional food culture (go to somewhere like France or Spain, or Vietnam, and the difference is night and day). That said, when I read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" a few years ago, I did change many of my habits, and my purchases became almost exclusively organic for ethical reasons. However, like Pollan, I continued to eat meat, though shifting to more ethically raised and killed sources.

Now having recently completed Foer's book, I have yet to consume meat, and really this is because Foer's central "decision" is so unavoidable: Either you don't eat meat, or you support a lot of animal pain and suffering. I believe meat-eating can be ethical, but right now, in our world, it is really just too screwed up and sick to be patronized. So bringing together the book itself and my personal reaction to it, I would say this book is profoundly "impactful" (not a word - I know), if my reaction is representative of anything. I am still contemplating meat consumption for the long term, as deep down I think there is something fundamentally "not right" and borderline neurotic about complete self-denial of meat - I mean, it is so closely tied to our evolution and culture, and its presence is strong in almost every single human society, indigenous or otherwise. But until this settles in my mind, it feels better to just say "no". And ultimately, how it "feels" is probably going to be the ultimate deciding factor for me, because I don't believe ethical debates are ultimately solved through pure logic...Foer seems to say this as well...

I do have one big issue with "Eating Animals", and that is with regards to the future of killing animals for food (which I doubt will ever go away): How will the more acceptable animal food operations that Foer admires - like Frank Reese's turkey farm - ever develop into something beyond the fringe, when ethically minded people go straight to non-meat consumption? It does seem a bit disingenuous to promote these meat farms and then say you will not patronize them, as (SPOILER ALERT) Foer does.

So I am no longer eating meat for some time (maybe forever) as a result of this book, which is I believe is a testament to the power of the author's words. My only pressing issue now is what do I feed my cat?

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.