This book.
This book is so incredibly interesting that I wish I could skip class and work and any and all obligations I might have so I can keep reading it. But at the same time, I think the sporadic chunks I’ve been reading it in might be a more effective way to digest the book. I feel like every time I read another page I stumble upon another revelation. So far I’ve read 96 pages. About 96 revelations? Not quite, but there are a few specific lines that stood out to me enough to grab a pen and underline them. Here they are:
1. “For thousands of years, farmers took their cues from natural processes. Factory farming considers nature an obstacle to be overcome.”
2. “We tend not to think about this because we tend not to know about it.”
3. “How much do I value creating a socially comforting situation, and how much do I value acting socially responsible?”
4. “What I hate is when consumers act as if farmers want these things, when it’s consumers who tell farmers what to grow.”
BOOM. Are you thinking yet?
And now, because I feel these quotes need some context and explanation, I will give you that.
The first quote is obviously referring to factory farming, and what is inherently wrong with it. This line really stood out to me because something that I personally feel is important is that animals should live a life the way nature intended their lives to be led. Typically, when I say that, both meat eaters and vegetarians present the same concept to me: even if an animal is raised on a local family farm it did not live a natural life because it lived on a farm and was killed before nature intended when it was slaughtered to be put on my plate. This is an incredibly valid point, and something that I need to think more about before coming to a definitive conclusion on my own feelings- but my initial response is that man was intended to eat meat. Ancient, ancient homo sapiens didn’t have gigantic teeth to eat kale. They had huge chompers to chew through meat. As of now I’m okay with eating animals. I’m just not okay with animal suffering and abuse.
Quote 2 was specifically referring to this fact: “Shrimp account for only 2 percent of global seafood by weight, but shrimp trawling accounts for 33 percent of global bycatch.” “Bycatch” is the term used to refer to sea creatures that are caught by accident as a result of fishing. I did not know what bycatch was or that shrimp account for only 2 percent of the world’s seafood. And honestly, I don’t care that much. I will never remember those shrimp facts, but I will probably never forget the quote that followed it. “We tend not to think about it because we tend not to know about it” highlights human ignorance in its most innocent light. How can I be concerned with ANYTHING if I don’t know about ANYTHING? Especially shrimp! For me, this quote relates to everything else I have read in Eating Animals and it resonates with me on a level outside of this reading this book. Education is the most important factor in making a difference, because if nobody knows a problem exists then nobody is going to be working to fix it. It’s so important not to blame or judge people for their actions, because they probably don’t even know why it might be considered bad.
The third quote I listed is a question that I have been asking myself every single day. In the context of the book this quote refers to the awkwardness of telling a dinner host you will not eat their food. Foer, the author, writes this in his definition of the word “discomfort food.” For somebody like me, a flexicarnilocavore (or “selective omnivore,” but I like mine better) we can simply tell a host, “I’d love to come for dinner, but just so you know- I’m a vegetarian,” or we can say, “Thanks for inviting me! But I only eat locally farmed meat.” The former denies us a (literal) stab at any meat as well as creating the work of an entirely different dish to prepare, whereas the latter would imply we could all eat one meal- as long as the meat was from a local farm. The latter statement also comes off as condescending, as if the hosts dietary habits were below my own. Finding a balance between “creating a socially comforting situation” and “how much I value acting socially responsible” is not easy and will continue to be something I aim to do.
The last quote I listed made me incredibly excited because it’s exactly why I started doing this. This quote was actually said by a factor farmer, not Foer. Even the factory farmer knows that the current state of farming was brought about not because the farmers wanted it this way, but because consumers demanded such a high production of meat that this is what the industry has arrived at. As consumers we have the choice to eat less meat or only buy locally farmed meat. We have the power to send our message to the meat companies.
Phew that was a lot. But I had so many thoughts bouncing around in my head and it was time to let them free! This was a week of firsts for me, beginning with the first time I highlighted and put post it notes in a book I was reading for non academic purposes. This first was followed by the first cockroach I’ve ever seen. I actually google image searched “cockroach” to see if that’s actually what I found on my bathroom floor. Unfortunately it was what I found on my bathroom floor. Ew. My last first of the week was my first taxi ride in Boston! It was completely uneventful and unglamorous. In the future I will continue to opt for my bike or my feet because they don’t smell weird or charge me money.
Just kidding sometimes my feet do smell weird.
TGIF
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