Vegetarian Star

Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

Jonathan Safran Foer was the guest of honor at this year’s Farm Sanctuary Celebration for Turkeys.

Jonathan read some parts from his latest book, Eating Animals, and took the time to talk to green gossip website Ecorazzi.

Here are a few thoughts Jonathan gave to Ecorazzi:

On Farm Sanctuary:
Farm Sanctuary was the first place I went when I did my research for this book. I had a really wonderful day. In many ways it established a tone for the rest of my research, which was that these issues all depend on how you tell them—how you present them. It’s not the case that the world needs new values, it just needs a new story—a story that more accurately reflects what’s going on in the world and more directly connects it to who we already are, not who we want to be, just who we already are.

On what famous person he’d like to see go veg this Thanksgiving:
I don’t know if I think of it in quite those terms. Like I was saying, there’s something that seems dichotomist about that—turkey or no turkey. Look, someone like Glenn Beck could not have a turkey and that’s fine, but what I would so strongly prefer is that he had a week-long series about animal agriculture in America. I have no interest in prying a turkey from his hands. Frankly, he could do so much more good in the world then his individual choice.

Read the entire interview with Jonathan at Ecorazzi.com.

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Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

A smart aleck by the name of Foster Kamer wrote a post for Gawker.com on some alternative ways to spend you time instead of reading Jonathan Safran Foer‘s latest book, Eating Animals.

Here are just a few things Kamer says you can do besides read Jonathan’s book:

6. Eat some tacos. Pork tacos.

7. Eat some bacon (but don’t be obnoxious about it).

8. Eat a bacon cheeseburger.

Number 11 on Kamer’s list is the taker–“STFU” (Shut The (Expletive) Up).

How nice.

Eating meat must hamper your creativity skills because “burger” is way overused on the list. C’mon. Kamer could have at least branched out and said something like, “Build a model White Castle restaurant from old newspaper, then recycle it.”

At least that would have made the part time, greenie vegetarians a little happier.

Seriously, if the only way to respond to an opinion that’s different than yours is with cutesy, junior high school retorts, you had better not use that “humans can eat meat because we’re superior to animals” argument.

The number one thing to do instead of writing a nasty column on why people shouldn’t read Foer’s book?

1. STFU and (tie)
2. Read the book. Then STFU.

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Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

“I spent the first 26 years of my life disliking animals. I thought of them as bothersome, dirty, unapproachably foreign, frighteningly unpredictable, and plain old unnecessary. I had a particular lack of enthusiasm for dogs—inspired, in large part, by a related fear that I inherited from my mother, which she inherited from my grandmother. As a child I would agree to go over to friends’ houses only if they confined their dogs in some other room. If a dog approached in the park, I’d become hysterical until my father hoisted me onto his shoulders. I didn’t like watching television shows that featured dogs. I didn’t understand—I disliked—people who got excited about dogs. It’s possible that I even developed a subtle prejudice against the blind. And then one day I became a person who loved dogs. I became a dog person.”

“The first full chapter of my book explores our divergent attitudes toward dogs and fish—fish being at the far end of the spectrum of our regard. I write about a simple trick that backyard astronomers use: If you are having trouble seeing something, look slightly away from it. The most light-sensitive parts of our eyes (those we need to see dim objects) are on the edges of the region we normally use for focusing. Eating animals has an invisible quality. Thinking about dogs and their relationship to the animals we eat is one way of looking askance and making something invisible visible.”

—-author Jonathan Safran Foer, during an interview about his latest book, Eating Animals.

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Farm Sanctuary "Celebration For Turkeys"

Best selling author Jonathan Safran Foer will be the guest of honor at Farm Sanctuary Celebration FOR Turkeys on November 22 from noon to 5PM.

Jonathan will be reading parts from his latest book, Eating Animals.

The Celebration FOR Turkeys features Thanksgiving dinner sans the real turkey catered by vegan restaurant Candle 79. In addition, there will be a silent auction to benefit the sanctuary’s animals.

Russell Simmons is expected to give a presentation as well and other celebrity attendees on the roster include Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, Mary and Peter Max and Ally Sheedy.

Tickets are $150 per person and seats are expected to fill fast, so reserve your ticket today and visit farmsanctuary.org for more information.

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Author Jonathan Safran Foer was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show recently to talk about his latest book, Eating Animals.

Jonathan touched on the fact that most people aren’t aware of the conditions of factory farms.

“Unfortunately this image that we have of a farm has created a distance between our values and our actions,” Jonathan says.

“We continue to believe that the meat on our plate comes from these idealyc places. I wish that it did, but it doesn’t.”

Watch the entire video to feel the veg vibe as the two vegans chit chat.

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Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

Best selling author Jonathan Safran Foer has a new book out, Eating Animals.

Foer had been an on again/off again vegetarian for years, but never really took the time to learn about the rational reasons for doing so. When his wife became pregnant, he decided it was time to educate himself so he could teach his child why going vegetarian is the best diet for humans, animals, and the planet.

In a recent interview with Vegnews, Jonathan elaborates on why people still find no fault in eating meat, especially factory farmed meat.

“Peoples’ responses to food, the reason they take it so emotionally and so many smart, informed people continue to eat this stuff—it’s not because they’re ignorant, it’s not because they’re evil. It’s because there’s a large component of our decision-making that isn’t reasonable. The challenge is to persuade people, or show people, even those parts that aren’t reasonable, things like cravings, are actually better satisfied by not eating them.”

“I think the better way to talk about it is like a series of these choices. Like how can one try to make the best choice as often as possible? The “best” meaning the choice that is in line with their values. Despite the array of values that Americans have, if everyone ate his values, nobody would eat factory farmed meat. And I think, frankly, very few people would eat any kind of meat. Nobody’s values lead them there. It’s only forgetfulness.”

Read Jonathan’s entire interview at vegnews.com.

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Natalie Portman recently revealed that after flirting with veganism, she made the permanent switch after reading Jonathan Safran Foer‘s book Eating Animals.

Portman took to the Huffington Post to explain her motivations and decisions that arose from reading the book and her thoughts on factory farming and using animals for food.

On Her Switch To Veganism
“Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals changed me from a twenty-year vegetarian to a vegan activist. I’ve always been shy about being critical of others’ choices because I hate when people do that to me. I’m often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., “What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what’ll you eat?”).”

On Factory Farming
“The human cost of factory farming — both the compromised welfare of slaughterhouse workers and, even more, the environmental effects of the mass production of animals — is staggering. Foer details the copious amounts of pig shit sprayed into the air that result in great spikes in human respiratory ailments, the development of new bacterial strains due to overuse of antibiotics on farmed animals, and the origins of the swine flu epidemic, whose story has gripped the nation, in factory farms.”

Read Natalie’s entire article at huffingtonpost.com.

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Although Tobey Maguire had convinced Natalie Portman to go vegan for awhile last year, from an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal in Interview magazine, Natalie gave hints that she still might do the dairy.

However, a recent interview with the La Times confirms Natalie is indeed vegan, thanks to reading Jonathan Safran Foer‘s upcoming book, Eating Animals.

“There are certain things you can have different opinions on, but then other things, like torturing animals, [are] just wrong,” Natalie said and added she planned to become more outspoken on animal rights.

During the interview, Natalie was even munching on a soy cheese sandwich.

Ah, there’s no better way to show activism that by edible  example.

Natalie’s latest film, Kosher Vegetarian, premieres tomorrow October 16.

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