Word: foer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Since I encountered the realities of factory farming, refusing to eat conventional meat has not been a hard decision,” Foer writes. “And it’s become hard to imagine who, besides those who profit from it, would defend factory farming.” In a way, this is an evasion; Foer blames the most egregious ethical problems on how meat is raised, but is reluctant to conclusively delineate whether it is wrong to eat animals raised more comfortably...
Although many people are vaguely aware that factory-farmed animals are kept in small, crowded enclosures and are subject to painful slaughter procedures, Foer exposes the suffering of these animals throughout their entire lives, focusing largely on the degree to which the animals’ natural behaviors are disrupted. Industrial pigs, chickens and seafood (and, to a lesser extent, cattle) are prevented from engaging in any of their instinctive behaviors; chickens are kept in tiny cages and often kill and cannibalize each other for lack of social hierarchy. Pigs and fish undergo similar experiences. “I simply cannot...
Perhaps it’s counterproductive to belabor animal suffering in the way that Foer does; those who eat meat often argue that it is irrelevant to apply the same morality we do to human suffering. Foer makes an excellent argument that for himself and much of his audience meat is nutritionally unnecessary and ecologically harmful, but using a moral argument to evince a change in people’s daily lives may be ineffective. Foer’s facts are visceral and damning for those who sympathize, but they may not be enough...
Nonbelievers may find Foer’s arguments about factory-farming’s human impact more convincing. He enumerates issues of water pollution, abuse of the work force, cutthroat competition with local businesses and near-intolerably low health standards. Foer could have written a book just about these aspects of industrial farming, and it may well have provided a more compelling rationale for choosing vegetarianism. But it would have been less affecting. However, like his novels, “Eating Animals” often uses graphics, such as a small box the size of an industrial chicken cage...
...power, though, is neither its scope nor its journalistic merit. Rather, the importance of “Eating Animals” lies in the depth and nuance of Foer’s argument and in the portrait he sketches of animal agriculture as it stands today. Foer is occasionally shrill in his denunciation of factory farms, but his examination of animal welfare representatives—a vegan activist, several “ethical farmers” and a small slaughterhouse owner—is both more in-depth and more critically engaged, if for no other reason than...