Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer - Part 4

Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 40

 February 9, 2017 

Book 11 - Eating Animals
by Safran Foer (2009)
 Part 4 - Pages 203-267
Reading Time - 1 hour

This is where the shit hits the fan. Or maybe the rubber hits the road. What to do?

Look, we all know factory farms are horror shows. The very term "factory farm" is an oxymoron. Factory and Farm would have been considered two complete opposites 100 years ago.

Factory - urban, mechanized, hectic, efficiency
Farm - rural, pastoral, peaceful, patience

Animal husbandry (taking care of animals) has been replaced by something else... And we are the driving force. We look for shampoo that hasn't been tested on animals but.. we buy meat that is produced in exceedingly cruel systems. All so we can have some cheap meat... or meat every day.

Does the pleasure justify the means?

The thing is... factory farms have succeeded because they have divorced us from our food. We don't know where our meat comes from anymore. We can't go and visit the farms and learn where our sirloin steak comes from.

The author makes a case for vegetarianism. I get that. It's his personal decision. I don't know that I can make that same choice. I still want to eat eggs and cheese and meat. But... I don't want to eat any of it if it has suffered the way factory animals suffer.

Sooo... we are researching local farms. There's a bison farm somewhere near here. There are small-scale chicken operations. There are sheep farms. I want to support the real farmer - the 1% of farmers who are NOT factory farmers. So...

• Eat Local
• Eat less meat - maybe 3 times a week or less
• Shop at Farmer's Markets
• Raise our own chickens/ducks for eggs

It's a start. We know it will likely cost more. But if we eat less meat, it should balance out.

Ultimately... it comes back to my experience in Vietnam. Seeing dogs and cats in misery as they went to a miserable death before ending up on someone's plate. It's the same with pigs, chickens, cows, sheep. Misery is misery. I don't want to eat flesh that has had a miserable existence. The only way the system will change is if we vote... with our feet... with our wallets... with our shopping carts.