BOOKS READ 39: EATING ANIMALS BY JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
I have a pretty strong relationship to food. I like to read about it. To make it. To think about it. And to share it.
Food is just one of the (very) few things that I am always completely sure about. One of the things that I always thought I knew when it came to my relationship with food was that I would never, ever be a vegetarian. Ever. If I ever met someone I had a crush on who was a vegetarian, it automatically made it easier for me to move on from them (you can’t go out to dinner and say, oh man was that steak ever good and have them completely understand! Basis for any relationship: understanding and sharing experiences!) Whenever someone asked if I was a vegetarian, I would laugh, and say, “No, never” (FOOL! Psh, asking if I’m a vegetarian). It always made me feel really good when a chef I really admired said they hated vegetarians and proclaimed that they would forever eat meat. Like, YES. I am not strange in thinking that confining yourself to just vegetables seems like a sad endeavor.
I thought because I loved food so much and because of who I was, I did not want to restrict myself from any experiences (can we not agree, that many good food experiences involve meat? Deep fried chicken?! Ramen?! Izakayas?! PEKING DUCK?!). I didn’t want to not be able to eat certain things just because of a certain belief that I didn’t really even believe in or understand (clearly). And I thought being a vegetarian would be taking me away from experiences that I would find really meaningful, and not to mention, so delicious. I mean, I am pretty hermetic as it is, and to take away a big chunk of my joy for when I do go out to eat and socialize? Oh gawd.
I knew reading this book that I would be presented with facts that I just would not be able to look away from. I knew that the instant I committed to this book, that, something would change and I would have no choice but to change because I just simply was not ignorant anymore. It made me scared to read it. But I am not (or would like to think, at least when it comes to books)….a wimp. So I read.
At first with the book, I wasn’t really connecting to it. I felt more awful that I didn’t feel awful about what I was reading. The part that I didn’t feel all that awful about was how much animals suffer when we kill them. It was still too distant for me (which is what the book was getting at as well - we just aren’t connected to our food and where it comes from anymore). The facts with these enormous numbers just didn’t disgust me enough. You can think I’m awful. It’s okay.
But then he started talking about how eating animals affects our environment. I had always known how eating meat completely messes up our planet and that if the world had a less meat heavy diet, the environment would be incredibly thankful. Even though I make fun of them and would avoid them kind of romantically, I was always really thankful that there were vegetarians on this earth, I just couldn’t bring myself to be one. Foer pointed out that if you consider yourself an environmentalist (and even though I have a number of contradictions against me - I do), then the first thing you should be doing is being a vegetarian. I could not argue with him there. A lot of people feel so helpless when it comes to global warming and how to help alleviate its affects, and here is one thing that is so completely in our control and would contribute so drastically, especially on a massive scale, that its just hard to ignore that you should consider being a vegetarian.
Then he started talking about how we have created super diseases from how we produce and eat meat. That terrified me. Because I knew it was something that once unleashed, it would have devastating effects and, well, I sure didn’t want to be caught in a worldwide pandemic and die. I want to die of old age from having a good life, and anything that threatens that and the lives of my future (haha) children, I am way too selfish to let that happen.
He talked about how factory farming has replaced much of family farming in North America. Our diet has killed knowledge that has been built and refined over centuries. That made me incredibly sad. It is completely illogical because we have not replaced the knowledge with something better and we did it out of greed. We are not honoring this slowly dying knowledge, these people, who sustain and create life, but rather take complete advantage of them and completely exploiting it - I was at a loss.
The book isn’t a guilt trip. It just told you very simply and plainly what is happening. And after knowing all these things. I just didn’t feel right about eating meat anymore. He spoke about his grandmother (she is Jewish and went through the holocaust) and how she was surviving on next to nothing during the war, and there was a point where she could have died, but she found a Russian farmer who gave her food, but he only offered pork. And she didn’t take it, even though it would have helped her survive. When asked why, she said, “If nothing matters, then there is nothing to save.” Food matters so much to me, I deeply care about everything that comes with it, and I just cannot knowingly think I have a respectful relationship with it by continuing to eat meat in this point in time. Who knows, maybe there will be a day where we truly produce meat sustainably. But until that point. Well. I am not holding my breath. And I am sure there are points in my life where I will eat meat again, I’ve got a long way to go, and I am human.
I haven’t even not eaten meat for that long. But definitely longer than I ever have. And I am still kind of scared of the prospect of being a vegetarian. But at the same time, as cheesy as it sounds, I’ve just put in a lot more effort into wanting to not eat meat and it has really made things look different in a really good and expansive way. I see food blogs completely differently. Menus completely differently and what I cook differently. Foer also talked about how the world has such an abundance of edible food available, yet we only eat a very small percentage of it. I feel like I am expanding the possibilities of what I could eat and also my abilities as a cook, the complete opposite of what I thought it would be like to be a vegetarian.
I sure gave vegeterians a hard time.
Sorry guys!
