Foer does a good job of dismantling marketing techniques used by the meat industry to keep consumers buying - terms like "humane", "free-range", "organic" and "grass-fed". He offers first-hand accounts of factory farming, its brutal efficiency and its appalling practices. Foer explains why this method of farming is spreading across the world from the United States, in which 99.9% of chickens and >90% of most other animals are kept in these horrific camps. However, he also explains why, even if there were a way to keep meat ethically, it would still involve the suffering of millions of animals every year during transportation and in the slaughterhouses, which are notoriously secretive much like factory farms. In addition, in order to scale-down meat production to a size at which small, "humane" farms could exist, the majority of people would effectively have to be vegetarian anyway.Apart from animal welfare issues, the book explains why eating meat is generally more unhealthy and why it is incredibly bad for the environment. As a vegetarian, I feel like I was wired to feel passionately about certain parts of this book. Foer's descriptions of pig and chicken factory farming in particular are jarring, disturbing, and won't easily leave you. And as we're about to head into Thanksgiving weekend, his closing chapter which includes descriptions of turkey farming was haunting as well. But as a vegetarian, my biggest guilt comes from my consumption of dairy products and eggs, knowing that the farm conditions for layers and dairy cows are atrocious too. It baffled me that Foer didn't talk about these farms in at least more than a cursory way. I know that his focus was on *eating* animals, but there's no denying that many of his arguments against eating animals apply to eating dairy products and eggs as well. The animals on those farms lead terrible lives too. My only theory was that, as a vegetarian himself (he never identifies himself as a vegan), he also faces that guilt and didn't want to leave his position of superiority for the purposes of this book. That is really just a theory. But the omission of a real discussion about dairy and egg farms was very glaring.
What do You think about Eating Animals (2009)?
No review, this is not a book. This is a bible, THANK YOU JSF. Life changing
—charli
It was so powerful I became a devout vegan for four days.
—Cyruskulduggery
