Vegetarian Star

"Eating Animals" Jonathan Safran Foer

You always aced any literature test in high school by reading the Cliffs Notes.

That was, until your Honors English teacher decided to write test questions that specifically couldn’t be answered from the yellow book.

Some people!

If you haven’t read Jonathan Safran Foer‘s book about animals and factory farms, Eating Animals, perhaps you’d like to at least look over 10 main arguments he makes in his book for not consuming animals.

The summarized arguments on issues such as pollution, infected animals and human rights of employees may give you the push to give up eating animals entirely or provide arguments to people who ask why you choose vegetarianism.

Factory farmed animals contribute to antibiotic resistance:
“In the United States, about 3 million pounds of antibiotics are given to humans each year, but a whopping 17.8 million pounds are fed to livestock—at least that is what the industry claims. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has shown that the industry underreported its antibiotic use by at least 40 percent…. Study after study has shown that antimicrobial resistance follows quickly on the heels of the introduction of new drugs on factory farms.” (p 140)

Cruel treatment of animals before they’re even slaughtered:
“Animals are bled, skinned, and dismembered while conscious. It happens all the time, and the industry and the government know it. Several plants cited for bleeding or skinning or dismembering live animals have defended their actions as common in the industry and asked, perhaps rightly, why they were being singled out.” (p 230)

Need to study more before the big “test?”

Visit Sojourners for the other eight key points discussed in Foer’s book.

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Credit David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

How do you embarrass an anti factory farm, pro plant based diet guru?

Remind him of his past transgressions.

Jonathan Safran Foer was at a book festival in London discussing his Eating Animals book, when British author Hephzibah Anderson mentioned something to Foer about sharing a bacon cheeseburger with him several years ago.

How did Foer respond?

The New York Post described his reaction as “sheepish.”

Gotta wonder what this Anderson guy’s intentions were, bringing up Foer’s “past” in front of everyone like that.

Was he hoping Foer would say something along the lines of, “Yeah, that was the best tasting burger I ever had–before I went vegetarian.”

Or was he waiting for Foer to deny it, then whip out the big photo taken back then for memories?

If you’ve taken to spreading the good news about how a vegetarian diet is better for yourself, animals and the planet, be aware that what happened in carnivorous days doesn’t stay there.

If you get reminded of  how you used to eat the double double with fried egg on top in the most annoying and inconvenient situations, politely say that was before you realized how crowded the conditions in factory farms are or the amount of antibiotics wasted in animal agriculture.

Then ask him why he is still going to the steakhouse twice a week–with two different girls who think they’re “exclusive.”

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Livia Firth got involved in being green three years ago, and more recently she discovered Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the book, Eating Animals, that made her rethink her eating habits.

“I recently read an interview with Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote the book, Eating Animals, about becoming a vegetarian,” Firth told Ecostiletto. “He pointed out that if you eat meat only one day less a week it’s the equivalent of taking five million cars off the road.”

Firth insists that anyone can make the most of their buying habits, regardless of their budget.

“Once you know these things it becomes less about what background and money you have—it’s about how you behave as a consumer.”

“Instead of buying an economy pack of chicken and eating that every day, eat pasta or vegetables and buy organic chicken once a week.”

Firth tries to buy local and organic whenever possible and has three veggie beds in her garden, something she’s been doing since childhood without attaching the label “green” to it.

“As Italians, the way we grew up was just that way—we cooked only fresh, locally produced food. It just came naturally.”

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Stephen Colbert recently hosted Jonathan Safran Foer on The Colbert Report to discuss his latest book, Eating Animals.

Foer discussed the realities of how factory farms and the mass production of meat affects animals, giving the example that turkeys today don’t get it on.

“The Thanksgiving turkey isn’t even capable of sexually reproducing anymore,” Foer said.

When Colbert asked how turkeys multiply, Foer first joked that they are stimulated by porn.

Stimulated by PETA anti-fur ads featuring naked women, no doubt.

“They’re all artificially inseminated,” Foer claimed.

Not resisting the chance to offend, Colbert placed a plate of bacon in front of Foer, which Foer, keeping in theme with animal reproduction, labeled as merely, “flaccid.”

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Jonathan Safran Foer. Credit: David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

Best selling author Jonathan Safran Foer recently interviewed with Grist.

Foer discussed his latest book, Eating Animals, and touched on the hypocrisy of meat eating environmentalists, his own struggles of vegetarianism and the fact that he probably didn’t have Tofurky this past Thanksgiving.

A few highlights:

Will there always be a Tofurky on the Foer table during the holidays?
I don’t really get into the whole tofurky business.

On Environmentalists Who Don’t Push Going Veg:
No, they obviously haven’t [done enough], and they know it’s the elephant in the room. They haven’t because they fear that addressing it is going to risk losing people…This is the number one cause of global warming—and not by a little bit but by a lot. The most recently revised estimate was that animal agriculture is responsible for 51 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, so that’s more than everything else put together. If we’re going to seriously think about this stuff we might have to risk the discomfort.

On Fear Of Going Completely Vegetarian:
I would say don’t think about it as becoming a vegetarian. Think about it as a process of eating less meat. And maybe the process will end with eating no meat. But if Americans lose one serving of meat a week from their diet it would be like taking about 5 million cars off the road. That’s a really impressive statistic that I think might motivate a lot of people who feel they can’t become vegetarians to remove one serving of meat.

Read the entire interview with Jonathan at grist.org.

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Jonathan Safran Foer. Credit: David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

“Sex feels good, but we don’t go around having sex with anyone that attracts our attention. We say no to lots of things that would please us. I would like to punch people every now and then, but I don’t. I would like to have something for free rather than pay for it. I would like to skip to the front of the line… I don’t mean to brush aside the taste of meat, which is a powerful attraction. But its power is not without limit.”

—-Jonathan Safran Foer, answering the question of “What do I say to the idiotic line, “But they taste good” ???” during a online discussion of his book, Eating Animals.

Yeah, it never pays to be a meat slut. Ruins your health and reputation.

via washingtonpost.com

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Jonathan Safran Foer‘s trailer for Eating Animals features the very creature Jonathan used to despise–the dog!

“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,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan discusses french kisses with the dog, dinners with grandma and how his wife’s pregnancy with his first son prompted him to write his latest book in the trailer.

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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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