Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals Also Turned Me Vegan

Finally, we get to veganism. It only took me 2+ years since starting this blog. (laziness) Though I'm technically no longer a greenhorn, it's important to remember the roots of why I made this choice. (Or some cheesy line about how I'll always be learning new things about veganism)

Learning

Well I was vegetarian for about 5 months. Cutting meat out of my life was effortless and I was going pretty strong. But I still felt like I wasn't doing enough. Veganism was always the obvious logical progression. I knew I would eventually get there, but giving up all animal products entirely, including eggs, dairy, honey, leather, wool, etc, seemed too difficult.

But then I read Eating Animals, which as Natalie Portman said in her Huffington Post piece:

Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals changed me from a twenty-year vegetarian to a vegan activist. I've always been shy about being critical of others' choices because I hate when people do that to me. I'm often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., "What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what'll you eat?").

I've also been afraid to feel as if I know better than someone else -- a historically dangerous stance (I'm often reminded that "Hitler was a vegetarian, too, you know"). But this book reminded me that some things are just wrong. Perhaps others disagree with me that animals have personalities, but the highly documented torture of animals is unacceptable, and the human cost Foer describes in his book, of which I was previously unaware, is universally compelling.

The human cost of factory farming -- both the compromised welfare of slaughterhouse workers and, even more, the environmental effects of the mass production of animals -- is staggering. Foer details the copious amounts of pig shit sprayed into the air that result in great spikes in human respiratory ailments, the development of new bacterial strains due to overuse of antibiotics on farmed animals, and the origins of the swine flu epidemic, whose story has gripped the nation, in factory farms.

Both Natalie's piece and the book she describes are well-written arguments anybody can relate to. When I read Eating Animals, there was one specific account, which was not an exaggeration, of the "kill room" in an industrial cow farm. It brought me close to tears how these cows are hung upside down with their jugulars slit. The cows are supposed to be knocked out beforehand, being hit in the head by a steel bolt. But sometimes they are left semi-conscious, on purpose, because they bleed out faster if their hearts are still pumping. Sometimes they are fully conscious, not having been knocked out at all. Even worse, sometimes the cows are pregnant; one worker described a cow actually giving birth while she was walking down the "kill alley."

As Foer details, "No jokes here, and no turning away. Let’s say what we mean: animals are bled, skinned, and dismembered while conscious. It happens all the time, and the industry and the government know it."

not a sarah mclachlan commercial.

I felt so guilty. This story and all the countless other ones like it are results of our demand for meat. And it's not really our fault. Most of us grew up eating animals, not thinking anything of it, certainly not where it comes from or how it's "produced." To us, it's just food that ends up on our plates and tastes good. And part of the ignorance is because of the factory farming machine, which does a really good job of hiding their practices and transforming this sacred ritual of animal eating into a faceless, processed product that you buy in neat little packages with fancy price tags on them.

Choices

But once we learn the truth, that's where it really counts. Not knowing is one thing, but indifference is a choice. I'm not saying we should all be vegans overnight, but I can't help but frown upon a person who learns about all this suffering and chooses to ignore it. "Eating meat is natural," or "Meat just tastes too good," or the ever-popular, "You need a balanced diet," are not valid arguments. But ultimately, I don't preach or try to convert anyone. I believe in freedom of choice. It would be nice if it was an informed-choice, but that's probably wishful thinking. You don't have to do the whole vegan thing, but at least cut down on meat consumption (we consume more meat than we ever have in our entire history).

So I've been vegan for a little over two years. I feel great and am more conscious of my health than ever before. For me, it's not just about not eating animals, it's about watching my carbon footprint, as well as good nutrition and exercise. Because, let's be real, you can be vegan by eating nothing but potato chips and french fries (not fried in lard) all day.

oh the many benefits of fresh fruit.

I read that Natalie Portman stopped being strictly vegan when she was pregnant. I was a little disappointed, but I understand. Whether she went back to being vegan, I don't know. I also read that Jonathan Safran Foer started promoting "happy" chickens, which I don't support. Terms like "cage-free"or "free range" are ambiguous at best, but that's a whole other blog post. But in any case, even if Natalie and Jonathan aren't vegans themselves, their arguments are still sound. And I leave you with this excerpt from Natalie's piece.

I remember in college, a professor asked our class to consider what our grandchildren would look back on as being backward behavior or thinking in our generation, the way we are shocked by the kind of misogyny, racism, and sexism we know was commonplace in our grandparents' world. He urged us to use this principle to examine the behaviors in our lives and our societies that we should be a part of changing. Factory farming of animals will be one of the things we look back on as a relic of a less-evolved age.

I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just "This is tasty, and that's why I do it."

Love and Peace,
VG