Dude, if you think zoos are okay, you've lost most of your credibility with me.

After all my complaining about it, I still ended up reading a lot of Jonathan Safran Foer's nonfiction manifesto Eating Animals.

It really wasn't for me. First off, Foer explains one of the larger reasons why he decided to investigate America's food supply (and factory farming specifically), as:

"Unexpected impulses struck when I found out I was going to be a father. I began tidying up the house, replacing long-dead lightbulbs, wiping windows, and filing papers. I had my glasses adjusted, bought a dozen pairs of white socks, installed a roof rack on top of the car and a 'dog/cargo divider' in the back, had my first physical in half a decade...and decided to write a book about eating animals..."

And, a few pages later:

"As my son began life and I began this book, it seemed that almost everything he did revolved around eating. He was nursing, or sleeping after nursing, or getting cranky before nursing, or getting rid of the milk he had nursed. As I finish this book, he is able to carry on quite sophisticated conversations, and increasingly the food he eats is digested together with stories we tell. Feeding my chld is not like feeding myself: it matters more." (p. 11.)

Brother. Yes, I know your life changes completely when you have children, blah blah blah, but it's never been my favorite reason for authors to write their books. For one thing it always seems like kind of a prick move to me--maybe you could think about the state of the world before it becomes important to you because you now have children to worry about? Maybe even if you don't have kids you should be thinking about some of these things? Anyway. That's a small, very personal quibble.

It's not that I disagree with Foer, really. I don't think factory farming is right either. I didn't enjoy reading the chapter about how the chicken you buy in the supermarket is "water-cooled" after it is processed, which means it cools in what industry insiders refer to as its own "fecal soup." It's just that most of his arguments fall flat with me. I was particularly annoyed when he talked about taking his son to zoos and thinking about animals--as I think zoos are maybe as cruel to animals as factory farming is (except zoo animals aren't put out of their misery by premature deaths, but are rather kept alive to be gawked at in their tiny little cages).

It's also telling to me that my favorite part of the book was the part not actually written by Foer, but rather by a person who works in the chicken industry (whom Foer quotes):

"It's a different world from the one I grew up in. The price of food hasn't increased in the past thirty years. In relation to all other expenses, the price of protein stayed put...

People have no idea where food comes from anymore. It's not synthetic, it's not created in a lab, it actually has to be grown. What I hate is when consumers act as if farmers want these things, when it's consumers who tell farmers what to grow. They've wanted cheap food. We've grown it. If they want cage-free eggs, they have to pay a lot more money for them. Period." (p. 96.)

I want to read a book written by THAT guy. He seems to have a better grip on reality than Foer.

In all? There's at least two books out there that are MUCH better than this one: Mark Bittman's Food Matters, and Catherine Friend's The Compassionate Carnivore. I would highly suggest reading either one (or both!) of those books instead.

Comments

[laura]

I'm torn between saying I'm glad you read this book so that I don't have to and saying that I'm sorry you had to read it at all. And I'd rather read a book by the chicken industry guy, too.

[Citizen Reader]

Laura:

Oh, I should have known better. Any nonfiction that has blurbs on it from J.M. Coetzee is going to be nonfiction I'm not going to enjoy.

And, honestly, if you are looking for a farmer's perspective, I would definitely check out the Catherine Friend book. That title gave me a real appreciation for the fact that you can try to source your protein from people who will raise it respectfully--but it is going to take more time, and it is going to take more money. That's just the way it is.

[Laura]

You don't like Coetzee?

[Citizen Reader]

No, Laura, sadly, Coetzee is not for me. I always laugh when I think of him because one of my co-workers once said, "I don't know...Coetzee's just a little too 'Coetzee' for me." I'm not quite sure what he meant but after I tried to read "Disgrace" I had to agree with him.

[Laura]

I haven't read too much of his stuff - one in college that I was too young for and a few in the years since. Not my favorite for sure, but I've always found him good. I'm teaching a novel of his this semester, so I hope my students are more mature than I was at their age!

[sherry (nite swimming)]

Watching Food, Inc. is probably a better idea than reading Foer's book.

Political candidates will often say their motivation for running for office is because of their kids. 'Prick move' - good call.

[Madison Guy]

"Dude, if you think zoos are okay, you've lost most of your credibility with me."

Can't agree more, for the same reasons you mentioned.

[Citizen Reader]

Sherry,
I've never seen "Food, Inc." Thanks for the tip!

Ugh, political candidates who link it to their kids. Puke. Also unfair to blame that sort of thing on your children, I think.

Madison Guy,
Yeah, the zoo stance. I understand that some zoos are probably good and have research facilities to help animals, but even then I don't think the public should be allowed in to gawk. But without that it's probably hard to raise money. Brother. Isn't seeing a giraffe in a book enough? Or in nature programs? Why do we have all this mass media if not to help us with stuff like that?

[Thomas at My Porch]

I had to laugh at your comments about people needing to have children before they can be bothered to care about the fate of the world. In a similar vein, I get so miffed at all the parents and grandparents who are so over the top worried about the welfare of their children, but they don't do anything personally, politically, or economically to preserve the planet that their offspring will need to live on. I am to the point where I have maybe 40 years left on this planet, no kids, so why should I be worried (as I am, endlessly) about the state of our environment? I will be dead before the worst of it hits. (Hopefully)

[Citizen Reader]

Thomas,
Glad you enjoyed that. It is one of my biggest pet peeves. Our attitudes toward kids in this country seems to be a confused one of "now that I've had kids, I suddenly care about the earth" and "my kids should have more and better things than other people have, all the time." How to reconcile those two things, I'm not quite sure.

What ARE you doing worrying about the environment? Clearly you shouldn't care if you're not having kids, that's the only reason to ever change your life or attempt to engage others in thoughtful preservation. Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!? :)

[Citizen Reader]

Thomas,
This may be too much information, but one of the reasons I could no longer stand working at the public library was our approach to giving children little toy rewards for the summer reading program. Every time a parent demanded one of the little lead-painted toys for their beloved offspring, I ALWAYS wanted to say, "You realize some children in China spent their summers making these toys, instead of reading?" Years of keeping that sort of commentary inside was wearing me down.

[Rachael]

I'd say thanks for reading this on my behalf, but I read it over Christmas (yeah, that wasn't a bummer). The thing is, I can't really argue with much of what he says (the mere fact that farming is an INDUSTRY should say enough). I can't go veg (I mean seriously? I'd miss the pig too much.), so a few years ago I switched to local, grass fed meat and chose to eat less of it, too. But I didn't need the prospect of spawning to prompt it.

Also, the writing just sucked. Pardon my French, but yeah, it was beyond weak. Food, food policy, farming, gardening, historic food ways,* whatever, I love books on these subjects. Better books on the subject are Bittmann's (though I thought it was basically a recap of Michael Pollan's books, and the writing wasn't great), Fast Food Nation, Fat Land, Diet for a New America,** etc. Ugh, it just bothers me that this swill is getting so much press, and it once again makes people who care about these issues such a bad name because it is so...lame.

*If you want an interesting book on the co-evolution of human populations and their food environments, read Gary Paul Nabhan, esp Why Some Like It Hot or Coming Home to Eat. Fascinating.
**If this one couldn't veganize me, nothing ever will. But it's thoughtful, well researched, and--oh yeah--well written. Or well enough written.

Sorry, that turned into a rant. But jeez, that book bugged me.

[Rachael]

Oh, also, don't you just wonder how much of the kiddie junk we give away has lead, cadmium or some other generally unwelcome substance in it? Aren't stickers and gold stars enough any more?

[Citizen Reader]

Rachael,
As I've said many times before, we love and encourage ranting here at CR.

Yeah, I didn't even get into the format of the book, which employed all the cutesy tricks with layout and typography that JSF often uses in his fiction (and which annoys me there, too, frankly). I agree with you that there are many better books that should be getting more press than this one, which will just uphold the stereotype that people who care about food and think perhaps it shouldn't be an industry are crazy liberal, over-intellectual, elitist New Yorker types. Combined with JSF's assertion that he really thought about it when he became a parent, which is such an example of lazy and conventional thinking, and this book is a no-win.

End rant of my own! And thanks for the other book tips. They all sound better than this one.

Interestingly enough, the summer I'm referencing we DID give out toys that later turned out to have lead in them. I'm one of those grouches who thinks maybe reading should be its own reward, though, so none of my public library colleagues had any patience for me. I'd be willing to compromise on gold stars, though.

[Jessica]

Rant Day, hooray!

I'm a *vegan* and I was annoyed by this book. @Rachael, I was also annoyed by "Diet for a New America."

Since we're all being crotchety, I have to throw in there how annoying I find it that people suddenly become more environmentally conscious after they have a kid. Frankly, out of all acts with an environmental impact, having a child is awfully high up there! Once that baby becomes a teenager, it's going to be all kinds of extra driving and a house full of electronic devices, all of which will be in use simultaneously. All that Higher Consciousness stuff will go out the window somewhere on the way to dropping Baby off at the mall.

I could write a book about the food industry and making major lifestyle changes myself. The truth is, though, that only about 10% of the population is open to making change after reading a book. If people like meat, they'll eat it, even if it has a goopy eyeball hanging off it and it's lying in a puddle labeled "E. Coli."

Sorry... *I* thought it was funny, anyway. (big cheesy grin)

[Citizen Reader]

Everybody loves Rant Days!

Jessica, I'm interested (although not surprised) that this book annoyed you too. And now I totally have to check out "Diet for a New America."

This is always a slippery slope for me, as I am totally cool about how many kids people choose to have. What often annoys me is how they raise those kids. My parents raised six of us, and frankly, I think we strove to live lighter on the earth (then, and still now) than most families with one or two kids do today. My mother would have died before wasting a single scrap of anything (which I think shows great respect towards animals and all food sources) and we knew better than to ask her to buy us anything the few times we were out in stores (although she did eventually break down and buy Lucky Charms when her fifth child--not me--refused to eat anything for breakfast but sugared cereal). But I recognize not everyone has the stellar parents that I have. They had no trouble, for the most part, saying NO to their teenagers, which was good for us all.

I got a big laugh out of the puddle labeled E. Coli, thank you. Very apropos--our store-bought chicken actually DOES spend some time lying in a big water tank that could be labeled E. Coli. MMMmmm.

[Sarah]

It's like CHEAP, THE HIGH COST . . . so many things are more expensive than their immediate monetary cost to the consumer. Like the fact that I pay for the food stamps and health care for those employed by Walmart. We also all pay for the risks taken by financial institutions (they get the profits because that's capitalism).

[Jessica]

I wonder if your parents used the same parenting handbook as mine? If we asked for something, we got "No" or "We can't afford it" or, if we were really being whiny, "Ask me again!" (Meaning, don't ask again or you're going to wish you hadn't). We also had "If you don't like it, tough" at the dinner table.

I'm one of three, and my parents have six siblings and nine aunts and uncles between them. One has a grandparent who had 17 children and the other has a grandparent who had 18. My brother married an only child who was the product of two only children. Having seen how that went, I suspect there is an enormous difference in traditions of frugality and discipline between large and small families!

[Citizen Reader]

Sarah,
Did you know I'm reading that "Cheap" book right now? It's a bit detailed for me but quite interesting, and of course, depressing as hell. The Wal-Mart Conundrum of ripping people off while pretending to be everyone's best money-saving friend is particularly egregious, you're right. Sad.

Jessica,
Ha! I would guess our parents did have the same manual, titled "How Not to Take Any Crap from Your Kids...and How They'll Thank You For It Later." The "ask me again" line is priceless. I can just hear it!

Wow, 18 kids. I'm going to have to sit back in awe of that one. (And the runner-up with 17 kids.) Again, I don't think even if you have one kid they have to be spoiled, but what do I know? Unlike Jonathan SF, my whole life has not yet been changed by having children. :)

[Rachael]

Jessica, also not surprised you didn't like DFaNA. I've read better books. I do think it was soooo much better than this one, though.

I toy with veganism and lesser forms of veg, but always find myself coming back to meat. So I do my best to at least do what I can. (I know, you're not asking me to justify!)

Also, that was d****d funny!