Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (author of the novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) is one of the hardest books I have ever read. And I recommend it to everyone I know. I found myself reading it in small doses like medicine. Medicine for the accommodating, don't-make-anything-special-for-me, vegetarian. I'm still so overwhelmed with feelings and information that I can hardly express what I feel. But one thing is for sure: I don't want to be an accommodating vegetarian any more. I don't want to let my own morals slip for the sake of others' comfort. I don't want to be party to the incredibly wrong treatment of animals.
Foer shares his personal journey of oscillating between being a vegetarian and a meat-eater throughout his life. On the brink of fatherhood he wants to find clarity about food and he goes all out: he visits (sneaks into) factory farms and slaughter-houses, interviews factory farm workers, ranchers, PETA members, and old-style farmers. He lets them speak in their own voices in his book.
I love what the most ethical turkey farmer says. He raises turkeys from old stock. They roam the fields all day, they can fly and they can reproduce by themselves (which factory farmed animals cannot do). He believes factory farming is deeply wrong. Not just for the inhuman way the animals are kept penned up and often beaten or almost killed (that's right - not killed, almost killed) before they are skinned and gutted, but also because of all the "preventative" antibiotics given which are undermining our nation's strides towards better health by making diseases mutate so fast that we can't keep up with the multiple antibiotic-resistant strains. Anyway, he says, "I don't want people to live up to my standards, I just want them to live up to their own standards."
I love this quote because most people would agree that they do not want animals to be tortured with electric prods, beaten with iron bars or mutilated by having beaks and claws cut off. And yet every time we buy meat at the grocery store we are voting with our dollars that we DO want this for animals, that we DO support the horrors of factory farming, and that taste trumps compassion.
I wish that Foer had talked about dairy cattle in his book. I so want them to be treated better than the meat cattle. I love cheese. I just bought some rice-cheese and it sucks. I am all confused about how I feel about diary now. I've always eaten cheese - it's my fall back snack/meal. I don't eat many eggs and when I do I usually get them from my mom's chickens. I don't drink milk and rarely eat any other dairy products (except cheese). I know I have some more research to do and some more feelings to sort out but in the mean time I ask that everyone read Eating Animals and think about what you want to support with your dollars.
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Hello! That's great news that you've begun to think more on the issues of animals as "food".
ReplyDeleteFor 50 years, I never thought about it too much -But bit by bit the more I learned I realized there was an awful lot I didn't know about "meat". So I eliminated eating cows, chickens, pigs and eventually fishes... I thought this was the most I could do for health and the animals. After all what harm could there be in "eggs" or cow's milk?
I suppose being a big cheese lover myself, I didn't want to know... But then someone educated me about the miserable "factory" hens... The ground up males, the small cages and short lives... So it was too that the information about "dairy" was hard to face as well: The stolen calves... The babies that many times go to slaughter with their umbelical cords still attached. Or the other "viable veal" males that live confined for a few short months... I found it all so heartbreaking - No wonder why the industries try to keep this information from consumers... I've come to understand that there is more suffering in a glass of cow's milk than a steak...
Yes, I decided to wean myself... I found suitable alternatives to nearly everything. I'm a big fan of almond and rice milk... In fact I like the taste better and don't feel so bloated as with cow's milk. And the best cheese I've found thus far is Daiya... Nice assortment of "flavors" and the consistency is very similar.
http://www.daiyafoods.com/
I wish you luck on your journey... There are many, many excellent reasons to re-consider what we are supporting with our dollars. :)
Bea - Thank you for your comments and the link to your favorite cheese replacement. I'll see if my local co-op carries the brand you recommend.
ReplyDeleteIf we were back in the days when we knew our farmers and knew how the animals were being treated I think I would be perfectly ok with dairy products and maybe even with meat. But with modern practices being so cruel I don't feel good about eating dairy.
We are lucky up here in MN that we have many farmers cooperatives. I am hoping to do more research on my local food suppliers and hopefully I can find out that there are ethical choices for local dairy.
Sara! I am right there too. I stopped eating meat and related products a few years ago, but I am still struggling big time with the dairy question. I don't WANT to eat it, but I'm trying to figure out how to slowly become a vegan after forty-four years of eating with blinders on. I have started my day with a bowl of cereal and milk for as long as I can remember. I am addicted to ice cream and I can't imagine a life without cheese, but I desperately want to. The journey I've started toward all of this has elated, excited and depressed me all at the same time. I've learned some things about how my body responds to different foods and I've struggled to find the right balance. I feel better in some ways and worse in others. And for me, weight loss is part of the goal too. You are lucky that isn't a concern for you. It makes everything that much harder! I have watched my most beautiful friend living with boundless energy and zest for life for over twenty years and she is a vegan. She makes a good poster child for living with compassion and health. It has been impossible for me not to want that for myself. Farm Sanctuary was the turning point book for me. I met the author, Gene Baur, in person and found him to be the most amazing old soul realist (and vegan animal activist) ever. He runs the largest farm animal rescue organization in the country, but he never once made me feel like my baby steps in this were any less important than his own extreme choices. His book really changed my life. So sad and moving. Sounds like this book, Eating Animals, is doing that for you. Sorry for the long blab!!
ReplyDeleteHi Becky - Nice to hear from you. You might not know that I was raised vegetarian but not vegan - we always ate eggs and cheese. The first thing I learned to cook was scrambled eggs with cheese and ketchup. My mom raised goats so we had goat milk instead of cow milk. I never cared for it but I do appreciate that the animals were well cared for and the source was local.
ReplyDeleteNow days I drink rice milk with my cereal and I'm lucky that I never cared for other dairy products like yogurt, ice cream, cottage cheese, etc. so I don't have to find a replacement for those things. I think rice milk tastes really good.
Foer talks about Farm Sanctuary in his book. It sounds like an awesome place.
Keep up the good (and hard) work. Thanks for writing.