UNCOMFORTABLE, PART I

 

As a vegan, I thought reading Jon Safran Foer's "Eating Animals" would be mostly a repeat of information I already knew. Which was sort of true -- Foer does a good job of summing up a lot of the environmental factors that make modern husbandry so dangerous to our environment. Like Pollan, Foer stresses the pollution and deeply unnatural circumstances "farming" now propagates -- both on land and in the sea. The impact is horrific. Bycatch, or the unintentional sea animals that are harmed in the process of modern fishing techniques, make up a large part of caught animals. So the next time you reach for a can of tuna, know that you also contributed to the death of at least 145 species, including but not exclusive to: great white shark, Cuban dogfish, Spanish mackerel, hammerhead shark, blue shark, bonito, minke whale.... (p 49-50). Concentrated Animal Feed Operations, of course, contribute to excessive toxins to the environment, and are undoubtedly cruel to the genetically modified and exploited animals.

The biggest difference between Pollan and Foer is that Foer is more critical, more deeply sympathetic to the animal, whereas Pollan looks at a broader picture. You could say, in comparing the two authors, Pollan is the realist, Foer the sentimentalist, a term he acknowledges and thoughtfully examines:

"Two friends are ordering lunch.  One says, 'I'm in the mood for a burger, and orders it. The other says, 'I'm in the mood for a burger,' but remembers that there are things more important to him than what he is in the mood for at any given moment, and orders something else. Who is the sentimentalist?' (p 74, emphasis mine).

I could continue speaking about how Foer presents facts that shocked even me -- how the farm Pollan waxes poetic over (Polyface farm) uses birds that actually cannot live beyond six weeks -- they are "industrial birds", or birds that go through maturity in as little as 40 something days! You can look at what industrial birds are here, but know that none of the birds, no matter "organic" or "free range" can actually naturally reproduce (e.g. must be artificially inseminated), or walk/ fly because "their bodies won't allow for it" (p 111). Scary, right? But these are things you can and should find online, for yourselves. What you eat, and how, is a personal choice; it can absolutely also be a political, activist, or even cultural decision, but ultimately it's your call and it can mean very little to you, depending on whether you eat to live, or live to eat.

I get a lot of unsolicited questions about my veganism. People often ask, "What made you go vegan?" I will happily answer, and usually I say something along the lines of my environmental beliefs. I don't give a complicated answer because I don't think it's anyone's business, actually, how I eat. I don't try imposing my beliefs on other people at dinner; not my style. But what really stresses me out is how snarky the discussion can turn, or the insincerity that follows. Today I went to a BBQ where the conversation turned to plants and don't I think plants have feelings too? This is where I draw the line. I can't have a proper discussion with you about anything if you're ridiculous! I'm not sure where people often try to go with these discussions, but I don't play. Because you can't possibly add to my perspective if your understanding of a complicated system isn't there. Simply put, it takes two to dialogue, and it won't work if you don't have the rhetoric. A lot of times people will say, I'm just having an intellectual discussion about vegetarianism! No, you're not. Because you don't have the knowledge to argue. So, educate yourself. Like any social issue (race, religion, cultural events), it is not my responsibility to teach! I can, if I was patient and had infinite time, but it's an emotional investment that I don't care to have -- and that's not coming from a place of disconnect, I'm just simply tired of trying to reach out and make nice to people who just want to argue.

Suffice to say, topics that challenge us to think deeply at things we choose to ignore all the time make us uncomfortable. What is most intimately revealed in "Eating Animals" is that this act is in fact a deeply moral, ethical dilemma we face. I've never considered myself an ethical vegan (more of an environmental one), but I think Foer has recommitted my vision to a sharper degree. I think he draws a lot from Peter Singer's  seminal "Animal Liberation" but to be honest, I've never read the book as a whole! I've read a lot of his essays, but it seems more urgent than ever to understand what it means to eat meat. Putting that on my reading list..... now.

Happy Memorial Day, by the way, and shout out to my shorty Max for protecting and serving :)

xoxo t