Eating Animals Review

        Books involving vegetarianism and factory farming seem to inform the reader right away of the issue, instead of entering the topic one step at a time. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer not only gives information about certain topics, but it’s also a mixture of personal stories. There is a great experience to learn from someone like this author who has switched from being a meat eater to being a vegetarian. The author did do his research and did go to farms, but he was mostly a city boy who wouldn’t understand the hard labor put into that kind of work. His lack of experience makes me doubt what he was able accomplish when going to these farms. Many have critiqued his work, like Jay Rayner and Jennifer Resse by naming numerous flaws Foer makes throughout the book. Resse questions Foer's knowledge about meat as well as farming. She takes it as an insult that Foer is "[telling] the rest of us what meat is," she believes he is "less qualified" ( Reese 2).

        Admires of Foer such as Natalie Portman were greatly influenced by the novel. Portman turned into a vegan activist after reading Eating Animals. She believes in the well being of not only the animal of humans as Foer brings to our attention various times. There are countless examples of pathos within this book that make a reader feel either guilty or cherish the personal stories the author had with his family. One main example, was when Foer goes to a chick farm and he realizes all their beaks are cut off. I believe his main purpose is not to pursue the reader into vegetarianism, but inform them of factory farming. As he was entering this topic and starting his research he wanted to know, “ for [himself] and [his] family-what meat is” (Foer). He wanted the public to be aware of what they were consuming and how this meat would affect their health.

       If I were to choose to recommend this book to someone, I would. I enjoyed reading Foer’s personal stories and liked his writing style. It didn’t seem like he was forcing information or pursuing me to choose one side of the topic. His only purpose was letting people know about factory farming and what most of us eat is not what we think it is.