It was recently brought to my attention that one of my favorite authors, Jonathan Safran Foer, has written a new book entitled EATING ANIMALS. Based on what I've read from the review, this work is a more journalist project in which Foer reflects on his own life of eating and then travels to various meat farms and records his impressions of what he saw...
...and apparently he saw some terrible things.
The website on which this review features is called The Jew and the Carrot. I believe the site was originally designed to discuss the role of food in the contemporary Jewish lifestyle, but it has become a place where vegetarianism can be discussed.
For anyone who does not know, vegetarianism can be a tricky thing for a Jewish person. The celebration of their holidays has a prominent space set aside for special food. Lamb is a popular meat to prepare for a holiday Seder (let's not bother getting into ancient laws and Biblical commandments and whatnot and stick to the culture for now). I imagine the few remaining Bubbes of our society buckling a bit under the idea of a grandchild deciding to become a vegetarian (but any Bubbe worth her salt will find something she can feed you to put meat on your bones).
I like this topic. I appreciate people trying to think a little more about what they put in their mouths... especially in this country where obesity is an epidemic (a wide-spread illness among the millions of people living in America involves eating too much... for crying out loud...). It doesn't surprise me that a Jewish writer is contributing to the conversation. One of my favorite aspects of Judaism is their emphasis on education, and with more knowledge comes more consideration of how one lives his/her life.
According to his article in the NY Times (See here: Eating Animals), Foer seesawed with his vegetarianism for many years. He had a younger sister who, at a young age, seemed to grasp the concept that a chicken was a living thing that was killed to be put on her dinner plate. Foer at that point on walked back and forth between reasons of eating or not eating meat. It was the birth of his own children that made him solidify his vegetarian lifestyle. He and his wife chose to raise their kids as vegetarians feeling that it was their something better to offer them.
While he sounds pretty down on people who try to buy and eat meat ethically, I think I'm still with Barbara Kingsolver's basic idea. These animals that we commonly eat have now been bred so much into their purpose for human beings that they would die out without our assistance. It's not like they're going to make it out in the wild anymore, so, I figure we should give them good lives and then harvest them humanely. That would require that we all eat less meat, but that could be a pretty good thing for this overweight country.
I'm actually not interested in discussing my views on how we should eat. I do, however, see that there is room for change for the better.
For myself, personally, I often eat vegetarian. Especially at home, and particularly when I'm out in a restaurant (I don't have high hopes that most places put out the money for ethically handled meat products), I try to order a vegetarian option. Like Foer, I, too, mostly dabble with the idea. I know that if I, myself, stopped eating meat altogether, that I would not be able to change the system or the hideous and cruel things that are done to these animals all alone. Even still, as I have mentioned before, the yoga has changed my body and the way it digests things, so, whatever my views, I'm in a position where eating significantly less meat works well for me.
This is not the case for everyone and I think this is a point that is missing in Foer's article. I hope that in the book he touches somewhat on the idea that some people really function better on animal protein than the alternatives. I am content to have less protein, but some people live lifestyles, have health issues, etc, that make it important for them to receive this sort of nourishment. Aside from that, most doctors will point out that we have canines... therefor, in the natural circle of life, we are predators. We don't look down our nose at the tiger who ran down the antelope for breakfast... it is the way of things.
Obviously, with our big brains and all, you'd think we'd have a heart in our hunting process. There's no excuse to be so disgusting, so lacking in human mercy and sensibility, to turn a blind eye to what goes into our Thanksgiving turkeys... to the poultry farms that harbor birds that never, not once in their lives, see the light of day, or that are bound against flying from birth to change the quality of breast meat. There are worse stories than this, and I find it lazy to ignore all of them.
I don't have the answers, though. I have no idea how this issue ought to be handled. I think people should certainly eat less meat and that great efforts need to be made to alter the way these animals are treated. In the meantime, there might be some improvement in our general health if we make peace with some vegetables...
I'm looking forward to reading Foer's book and absorbing more information on the subject. Crossing my fingers to win a copy from The Jew and the Carrot website (If I don't win, I'll just buy it... it would just be funny... I'm like everyone else... I never win anything).
No comments:
Post a Comment