I just finished reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and while I don’t want to post a full review – there are PLENTY of those floating around right now! – I do want to mention a few things I learned from the book.

(By the way I think this is a really important book for EVERYONE to read. I mean, if you are interested in food, your health, and the world   )

Eating Animals is the end result of Foer’s three year journey to understand exactly what meat is. Motivated by his son’s birth and the reality of now being responsible for someone else’s life, Foer decided that he needed to get clear on where meat comes from, how it’s produced, and how the animals are treated before he could, with a clear mind, offer meat to his  son.

In the beginning of the book Foer presents us with a case for eating dogs. Yes, DOGS! His point is well made – we would NEVER think of doing to dogs what we regularly do to cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys. Why is that? It’s a question well worth asking. Reportedly, dogs are “quite tasty” and they’re relatively inexpensive. So why do they get to sleep in bed with us while veal calves languish in tight quarters while being shocked with electric prods? Why do baby piglets get to have their testicles ripped out without any anesthesia?

Anyway, Foer systematically walks us through four industries: fish, chickens, pigs, and cows. He visited both “family” and factory farms and reports back on what he found. I don’t want to ruin the book for you, so here is just a glimpse of some interesting, albeit sad, facts Foer reports out:

• Foer repeatedly sent letters to Tyson Foods asking to visit their facility so that he could see where his food comes from, and he was ignored. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to gain entry to ANY factory farm. Under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (drafted by the animal industry and signed into law by George W. Bush), you’d potentially be tried as a terrorist if you tried to enter into a factory farm uninvited. Why don’t the factory farms want us to see what they are doing?
• The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, in which 24 MILLION people died in just 24 weeks, was an avian influenza – bird flu. Scientists today argue that ALL flu strains originate from birds, which then jump to pigs, humans, etc. 99% of chickens eaten come from factory farms, which are filthy, disease-ridden environments – perfect influenza breeding grounds. Interesting note: did you know that the origins of the Swine Flu have been traced back to a pig factory farm in North Carolina?
• Due to overfishing, many scientists predict that our fish supply will be completely exhausted in less than 50 years. That’s REALLY scary.

Foer does find one nationally available brand that seems to have animal welfare in mind  – Niman Ranch. However since his research, Niman Ranch has forced out Bill Niman because they want to run the ranch “more profitably.”

Unfortunately we know what that means.

Related articles by Zemanta

• H1N1 Flu and Pork Production Connection Raised By Jonathan Safran Foer (takepart.com)