Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

I’m not a vegetarian.  I was once, for about five years as a teenager.  Then one Christmas I decided I couldn’t take it any more and tucked back into the turkey.

But I am married to a vegetarian (who is a vegetarian because of his cultural background and upbringing, rather than an ethical choice.)  So in practice I don’t eat any meat at home.  Once in a while when the Husband is out, I’ll have a fish pie, or some scampi, or pasta carbonara.  Apart from the odd plate of sushi, roast chicken at my Mum’s or burrito, that’s it.  I estimate about once a week or something.  Turkey twice a year; beef and pork almost never.

I recognise this isn’t a very consistent position.  Why won’t I eat burgers, when sausages probably have a lot worse in them? Why do I think it’s ok to eat chicken when that’s actually the worst thing I could probably do?  The only reason I’ve reached this point is because I don’t think about the issues enough.  Reading books like ‘Eating Animals’ is my attempt to do so.

There are no real surprises in Safran Foer’s investigation into factory farming.  Though it was interesting to learn that relatively speaking, fish is the worst possible thing you can eat in animal welfare terms, and beef probably the best.  It’s eyes wide open, no holds barred stuff.  It’s passionately written and eloquently argued.  Though there are a few too many references to slavery, in my view.  The facts are strong enough to speak for themselves, without needing hyperbolic allegories.

And in a sense, you don’t even need to read the book to agree with his principle: factory farming is wrong, disgusting, dirty and harmful not only to animals but to public health and the climate.  I am sure there aren’t many people who would disagree with it.

The question, then, is what to do about it?  For Safran Foer, there is only one answer: become vegetarian.   One of the people he quotes in the book says ‘The decision to eat any meat at all (even if the meat is from producers that are less abusive) will cause others you know to eat factory farmed meat where they may not have”.  This is a very black and white view of the world where the choice is only between evil meat or no meat.

This might be true in the US, but I don’t think it’s true in the UK.  First, because from what I can tell from Safran Foer’s book, the labelling in the US is such that terms like ‘organic’ and ‘fresh’ are meaningless and no better than factory farmed.  That’s not the case here.  Second, the UK does have a small but significant section of the meat market which is more respectful of animal welfare.  The obvious reason why that market isn’t bigger is that it is much more expensive.

So while being vegetarian is certainly one response, there’s another too.  If I – and others like me who can afford to choose to do so – make the conscious choice to only buy ethical food, and if the economics works as it should, supply goes up, price goes down, invisible hand does its thing, everyone’s a winner.  We are fortunate in the UK to have the information readily available from the independent RSPCA to help us make those choices.  But with that fortune comes a greater responsibility to act.

I think where Safran Foer’s argument doesn’t work is that he makes the ‘perfect’ the enemy of the ‘good’.  I simply don’t think global vegetarianism is a realistic prospect.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not prepared to work for something better than the current state of farming.

So here’s what I’m going to do.  From now on, I will only be buying freedom food.  And if I can’t have it, I won’t eat it.  In restaurants, it’s veggie all the way.  I’m not sure how I’m going to make sure the dairy and eggs being used in the food I eat are ethical.  I need to do some more research, unless people can tell me.

This might only be a small step.  And since I don’t eat much meat anyway, is probably even smaller.  But I at least might as well put my money where my mouth is, in the most literal sense.   Bye bye sushi, roast chicken, and burritos.  I had better start saving up for an ethical turkey.

Incidentally, Safran Foer’s book does what it says on the tin and only talks about ‘eating animals’.  He talks about eggs and dairy products and so on being produced in similar conditions, so I’d be interested to know why he didn’t choose to become vegan.  Has anyone read an interview with him where he said why?