Foer's Eating Animals: Provactive Ideas, But Can He Change America?

Jonathan Safran Foer's non-fiction auto-biographical and factually informative book Eating Animals is a testament to the evils of factory farming. Many critiques have been made, both positive and negative, interpreting Foer's overall message and presentation on the complicated issues of food production. When reading Eating Animals I found Foer's general thesis best to be summed up by one of his harshest critics. In her critical article writer Jennifer Reese elegantly states "It is absolutely true that the ancient ties between people and animals have been grotesquely perverted by industrial agriculture, as the strongest portions of Foer's book make horrifically clear. But, unlike Foer, I believe that fixing the relationship is both possible and worthwhile. To declare that humanity should opt out of this relationship altogether strikes me as less heinous but every bit as arrogant and unnatural as the factory farm." Foer is against all unnatural and believes everybody in America should convert their factory meat eating ways.

I personally whole-downheartedly want to believe and buy into Foer's message. However, I also believe he's living in an ideal state of mind in which the majority of Americans are incapable of reaching. Foer has bought into his own message for his family's health and societal impact. I believe his ideals are unreasonable for the majority of Americas for multiple different economical and lifestyle reasons.  Foer's revelations towards the grotesque horrors of factory farms and his lifestyle idea to boycott them completely is a very agreeable and positive statement that should never be criticized. I also profess that I think the American people can't change unless factory farming is cut out entirely. Basically, if it is there, the majority will eat it. The American people are not capable of such drastic industrial, agricultural, economical, and lifestyle changes without more of a dire driving force, Foer's revealing gross-out tactics are apparently not enough.
 
It is hard to argue against most of Foer's researched content. His research provides personal insight and compiled factual evidence that truly reveals the grotesque nature of factory farming. This information had me rethinking what I was mindlessly eating prior to reading Eating Animals. Another harsh critic of Foer's book, Jim Raynor writer for The Observer states in his critical article "The reality is that the raising of animals for food is an ugly business, however unintensive the methods used. That's a truth we must confront. There is no doubt that we have become too divorced from our food production system. We need to know how it works. We need to know what eating meat means." I prefer for food production to be out of sight and out of mind for the sole reason it is gross. However with these new revelations the possibility for me to enjoy the "potentially gross but good tasting" is far less, to the point now where I'm cutting foods I've once ate out of my diet completely.

 

In conclusion I would definitely recommend Eating Animals to anybody looking for a revealing look into how our food is made. While I believe factory farming may be necessary for America currently, the U.S. food lifestyle can change when the general outlook of the population changes. With education and time perhaps America will wake up and make an informed decision about regulating factory farmed meat.