(B) Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer, 2009) Grade: B
Eating Animals is writer Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) trying to decide whether he should become a vegetarian and raise his son that way. It would be called The Omnivore’s Dilemma if that title wasn’t already taken, perhaps. Foer looks at how animals are farmed (almost 99% is on factory farms) and processed. Basically, the low cost of meat is made up for in other ways (abuse of factory farm workers, unregulated pollution and, of course, the inhumane treatment of animals). In the end, Foer believes in animal welfare (people have the right to eat meat, if animals are treated humanely) versus animal rights (the belief that animals should not be consumed at all, believed by folks like Morrissey). It’s an interesting read. And it made me think of the Troy McClure video in The Simpsons.

The Simpsons - 705 Lisa the Vegetarian