Review & Giveaway: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer - CLOSED

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Expecting a child often involves new parents in thoughts about what values and beliefs they have which they would like to teach to their child. For Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the book “Eating Animals”, one such issue revolved around the moral ethics of food production, specifically the production of animals for meat. This self-reflection resulted in a personal investigation of the production of animals that became the book “Eating Animals”. While Foer's personal decision and recommendation is to forgo animal products altogether, he does make an attempt to examine the complexity of the issues involved and makes an effort to represent the many sides to the issue.

Although many of his readers would already have concerns about the moral ethics of eating animals and the environmental impact of the raising of multitudes of animals for food, “Eating Animals” is an accessible entry into these issues for the general public. While Foer makes a choice to abstain from animal products, his examinations should inform those who do choose to eat meat. At a minimum, the treatment of animals in factory farm conditions has a direct impact upon food safety of the products produced from them. Recent recalls of items such as milk and eggs have illustrated how little oversight the government exercises over the production of foodstuffs. Amongst other issues are problems such as food contamination, antibiotic-resistant microbes, and environmental degradation in the places where the animals are contained.

“Eating Animals” is not an enjoyable book to read. The descriptions of the treatment of many, if not most, animals raised for consumption and of the conditions in which the animals are produced and the impacts upon the countrysides surrounding these areas are both horrific and nauseating. Also, the small scale humane farming practices that he seems to recommend for those who do want to continue to eat meat are probably not practical for the large scale operations needed to provide meat for the growing demands of increasing global human populations and developing nations with increasing monetary ability to purchase meat. Instead, a new model for humane factory farming would have to be developed and Foer does not make recommendations for that new paradigm. At least for the foreseeable future, wanting or expecting a majority of the earth's population to choose to refrain from eating meat is not a reasonable or likely answer to the problems and moral questions involved with the farming of animals for meat.

While I recommend this book for reading, it is not appropriate for children and many young teens. However, anyone who is interested in the ethical and environmental issues discussed in this book as well as those who are interested in the health and safety of the food supply would be benefit by reading this book. Foer's writing style provides interest to reading about difficult topics, but I found that he tends to simplify many of the issues and arguments that need a more complex discussion. This makes “Eating Animals” a good introductory book for readers interested in some of the issues Foer discusses, but I found the book generally a reprise of similar works without Foer adding new depth or ideas to the arguments.

Title:  Eating Animals
Author:  Jonathan Safran Foer
ISBN: 9780316069885

Pages: 368
Format:  Paperback

Giveaway Details:

One person will win a copy of Eating Animals in paperback.  Giveaway will end on October 5th at 10:00PM Central.  I'll email the winner who will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

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