Eating animals
Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is a groundbreaking moral examination of vegetarianism, farming, and the food we eat every day that inspired the documentary of the same name. Bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. For years he was content to live with uncertainty about his own dietary choices-but once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important. Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions and the fictions involved with creating them. Traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer raises the unspoken question behind every fish we eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we grill. A must-read for anyone who cares about building a more humane and healthy world, Eating Animals is a book that, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, places Jonathan Safran Foer "at the table with our greatest philosophers."
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What Hacker News says
- There is a lot here to respond to. A LOT. I could spend an hour typing out a monolithic response but that won’t be as good recommending some reading to you. “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer is a great start, and “A Plea for the Animals” is a lovely follow up written by a neuroscientist/monk.
I’d also like to extend the opportunity to talk to you about everything you said. I believe so, so, so deeply that you are incredibly wrong about most of the things you said. My email is in my profile if you’d like to set up time to chat, but other than that all I can do is suggest those books to you.
No one will be able to challenge your beliefs for you. Only you can. Please, for the animals at least, considering challenging the thoughts you laid out in your comment.
- A Plea for the Animals, Eating Animals, or Animal Liberation
I’d start with Eating Animals. The author started the book to explore how his food ends up on his plate, but the book becomes about his gradual transition to veganism as he learns about animal agriculture.
A Plea for the Animals should be the second one. Written by a neurologist/monk who eloquently makes the argument that there is nothing in our biology which justifies subjugating animal.
Then Animal Liberation if you’re looking for a classic. It’s older, a bit more esoteric, but decent.
- Consider switching to a whole foods, plant based diet.
In addition to being highly nutritious and satiety inducing (therefore leading to relatively low effort weight loss) there are immense health benefits (markedly reduced chance of cardiovascular disease and cancer), ethical benefits (you will reduce the demand for ethically bankrupt, cruel factory farming practices that permeate more than 90% of the food industry) and environmental benefits.
Suggested reading: - 'Whole' by T Colin Campbell. - 'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Foer
- If you prefer books, Eating Animals and The Omnivore's Dilemma are also classics and worth reading. As far as I know, not much has changed since those books were written.
- My perspective on this was shifted significantly by a college course focusing on the (un)sustainability of modern consumption. If you’re interested, check out Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I still eat meat, and don’t really plan on stopping; but I am now less precious about pets and more respectful of livestock.
edit: PDF of the book: https://bc.instructure.com/courses/1745066/files/115253047?m...
- Yes. The root cause of unsustainability is still something horrible - the abuse of labor - but not literally the same as environmental goals. This is a case where intersectionality really shines. You really can align goals because ending labor abuse is good for the environment.
Likewise, with meat, the root cause of unsustainability is the animal abuse that enables cheap meat. I'm definitely not blaming the consumer here. Of course you could make sustainable meat, it would just cost 10-400x more (Eating Animals is a great, broad take on this you could read).
