I don’t like preaching (or even typing), so I’ll keep this short for all ten of you who actually check this blog. I just got finished reading Eating Animals, and it was the most upsetting thing I’ve read as an adult. I’m not being hyperbolic.
The atrocities taking place in factory farms across America would make you cry if you saw them with your own eyes — but you can’t, because the corporations that run them don’t let you see inside their torture mills. Pigs, which are smarter than cats and dogs, are confined to metal cages so small they literally cannot move. They live their entire life in severe pain and misery. The bars of their crates are coated with blood from their attempts to bite their way out. Still-alive pigs are regularly thrown into dumpsters full of dead pigs. The vast majority of these pigs have large abscesses and open wounds all over their bodies, and no veterinarians around to treat them. Humans only came upon factory farming in the last 60 years, and the only reason it continues is corporate obfuscation and capitalism run amok. It is grisly, horrifying stuff.
I can’t communicate all of this in a short post, but Eating Animals is extremely well researched and, in my opinion, absolutely essential reading. If you would like to read the book, leave a comment below and I’ll happily buy you a copy. Leave your address, or email it to me.
PS – I know meat is tasty; if you must eat it, please only buy it from responsible farms like Niman Ranch. A full 99% of meat in the US comes from factory farms, and if you eat it, you are directly supporting one of the worst crimes our species has ever committed.
PPS – If you can’t get through the above video, you shouldn’t be eating factory farmed meat. Ever. It’s really that simple.
March 31st, 2011
Michael:
Niman aren’t the only ones out there fighting the good fight but my problem is that it is so hard to have any real confidence in picking the right companies. Most of the choices I (we) are forced to make are compromises and I still genuinely believe that it is possible to eat meat responsibly given current options, and also that I am sending more of a message by doing so than completely abstaining. Unfortunately, more and more I feel myself falling on the wrong side of the compromise… Buy me the book.
March 31st, 2011
evan:
Yeah, it’s nearly impossible to get non-factory farmed meat unless you’re at the 1% of markets/restaurants that serve it. Book is on its way, boom.
April 1st, 2011
Trish:
I am blessed to live in the Bay Area where we have choices to select farms that raise and slaughter animals humanely and that we can actually go to these places to see for our own eyes. The sad thing is, I can afford this type of luxury. I think it’s truly unfair that the majority of farms out there practice brutal ways of raising livestock and that the lower income population is forced to support it.
April 1st, 2011
Chris Varmus:
Jon Foer was in my high school class, and was one of the smarter, more interesting people I knew back then. He’s gotten a little preachy and beatified in recent years, but I read his other two books and liked (parts of) them. I’ll take a free copy.
Also, I can take it— I participated in the slaughter of a (happily upstate farm-raised) pig last April, and it was deep. Not an easy thing to do— a lot of work, messy and ugly, but ultimately yielding delicious meat which we have been eating for the past year.
April 1st, 2011
evan:
Trish: I hear you, but the more I learn, the more I think it’s as much about education as it is income. Buying meat 1/2 or 1/3 as often, and spending the few extra bucks when you do. Eating smaller portions of meat, larger portions of vegetables. We are addicted to meat, including and especially lower income families.
April 1st, 2011
evan:
Chris: Yeah, I was a bit suspicious of him going into the book, but it’s really more about the research (which he had plenty of help with) than the prose. I remember Aa telling me about the pig, that’s great and definitely the best way to go. And yeah, it’s been making more sense to me that how an animal spends its life is actually more important than how it’s killed; a life of suffering is infinitely worse than a few minutes of pain. What’s your address?
April 2nd, 2011
Kathleen:
Heya, Evan
Great post. Of course, I can’t watch the video. :S I do eat meat, but like the Bay Area Seattle is a bit of an ivory tower. I have no trouble finding the best stuff up here. It is honestly so much tastier when your dinner wasn’t raised in cruelty, fear, and misery. The larger socio-economic issues are troubling. It is a strange self-perpetuating cycle of failure that we’ve made of the circle of life, isn’t it? The factories put the smaller, more humane farmers out of business. Those families can’t afford to compete then wind up only being able to afford the lesser quality product that put them out of business. It is the ongoing Wal-marting of America and it is terrifying.
I haven’t read Eating Animals; I just picked it up on Kindle. Unfortunately, it isn’t a title you’re able to lend :S I’m wondering if he addresses not only meat agriculture, but the practices behind all animal and wildlife treatment?
I haven’t been able to watch the whole film, but if you look up a movie called “Earthlings” and can get through the entire trailer you’ll never be able to look at anyone wearing a mink coat the same way again. If there is such a force as karma in the universe I have no idea how the human race is still here.
/end emo.
Thanks for the suggestion, bud.
Much love,
~kath (and minnie=))
April 3rd, 2011
evan:
Hey Kathleen: Yeah, 100% on the Wal-marting of America, it’s an ugly sight when “capitalism-run-amok” is applied to livestock. To answer your question, he does address traditional farms like Niman Ranch, and has very positive things to say about them. Unfortunately, they make up only 1% of the market. Thanks for the tip on Earthlings — just ordered it on Netflix (and found the full-length movie on Google Videos), looking forward to watching it (and getting super depressed). 🙂
March 31st, 2011
LISA:
WHY god, WHY… I only made it 1:15…never again!