I'd never read anything by Jonathan Safran Foer before, but I was always drawn to his cover art. Eating Animals was no different, plus it was on a topic that matters to me, and I may have bought it for Robert this Christmas because I wanted to read it. Well folks, I finally got around to reading it, a mere 7 months later!
I get preachy enough on JOP that I'll spare you a point-by-point summary of this book, but you should know that it is really good, really thoroughly researched, really well written, and I am vividly sicked-out by the bacon that just a few weeks ago I (a "vegetarian") ate.
The premise is that we all know animal slaughter is disgusting; we all know factory farming is wrong. The information is there for all of us and nobody doubts how awful factory farms are for us, for the environment, for communities, and finally for the animals. So why do we ignore that and keep eating meat? "Because it tastes good." Weak! Don't start with the "protein" junk, either. Americans get way too much protein and it has a lot to do with our cancer incidence.
But don't take my word for it! Eating Animals, which is a quick, page-turning read, gets the solidest A.
3 comments:
This book for me was a little bit of a preaching-to-the-choir situation, so I obviously loved it. I also ended up buying it for my whole family (non-vegetarians) for Christmas. Its definitely an eye-opener, but it doesn't attack non-vegetarians directly. Foer does a great job of keeping it narrative and emotional, so you don't get too bogged down by depressing slaughterhouse statistics. Its a great book to read right after "The Omnivore's Dilemma"!
Yeah! The Omnivore's Dilemma struck me as really idealistic and dreamy, much more than the simple vegetarianism that MPollan claims is idealistic and dreamy...and it was pleasing to see JSF take him to task.
At the same time it's not all PETA this, PETA that--just a really nice balance!
Holy crap, I have been wanting to read this but was always put off by the hardcover...because I'm cheap. But I will read it! And you should totally read his others--Everything is Illuminated especially is so, so good (and way better than the movie, if you saw that).
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