Apropos of our conversation on Wednesday about the merits and demerits of eating meat, here is a thoughtful review from this week's New Yorker magazine of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book about meateating. The author is Betsy Kolbert, who lives here in Northern Berkshire. I think you will find this article a nice complement to our reading and conversation so far:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/11/09/091109crbo_books_kolbert
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7 comments:
Foer, argumentatively, eats Pollen for lunch!
Well, I haven't actually read his book, but judging from this review it seems he may inconsistently adopt something very like Pollen's position even after having so lunched.
The flesh is weak (and tasty).
A blade to the throat, a bolt to the brain; hardly a difference worth remarking in the context of such misery and barbarism.
I don't know how reading about all of this meat matter both in Foer's article, and Jamiesons chapter 5, could allow anyone to feel comfortable eating meat again. It is nice to finally read truth about what is really happening to farmed animals. I am sure that everyone who has read this material now thinks twice before picking up a little chicken nugget or a slab of beef.
This article made me slightly sick. It is absolutely absurd what is happening to animals. Yet I am still torn; stuck in a moral dilemma. Meat is part of my life, always has been, and I assumed it always would be. However, all this material we have been covering has been rapidly changing my view of life. I am already undirectly guilty of the murder of thousands of animals and I am only 22... where did humanity go wrong?
This review of the book, I guess you could call it, is in depth and attempts to answer several moral issues, that for some people are still questions. For Foer, not so much. He is very sure of his position on vegetarianism, yet he did trip on his way of becoming a fully committed one. Luckily I have an amateurs knowledge on the factory farming industry before I read the article.
Personally, I did get a bit queasy when I read Chapter 5, however, it does not stop me from eating meat, poultry, fish, and what have you. I'm not sure if this makes me a good or bad person. Interestingly enough, when I do realize the moral implications of factory farming and concentrated animal feeding operations, is when I see it advertised on t.v. and not when I'm cooking it myself.
I have morally considered my meat-eating choices recently and wondered if I would want to stop eating it. Yes, it is possible, I could stop eating meat. Yet, I do not think that I have enough reason yet to actually want to do it. Being a conscientious omnivore would seem like the best path to take, it is also the more expensive path (my own dilemma, of course).
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