Against Meat, By Jonathon Safran Foer

Foer talked about how readers’ know what takes place at slaughterhouses and factory farms. I believe that if Foer had expanded on this reading by giving full, graphic details about what takes place at slaughterhouses he could have grabbed his readers’ attention.

Throughout most of his life Foer switches from being a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian. He finally selects the vegan life for good, when he has children. Foer makes the decision to be a vegan for him and his family because eating meat causes harm to the animals and the world (Foer 457). He also realizes him and his family does not actually need to be non-vegetarians, and finds a replacement for the cultural values of eating meat. “Meat and seafood are in no way necessary for my family…my mother and I now eat Italian, my father grills veggie burgers, my grandmother invented her own vegetarian chopped live” (Foer 457-458).

In the article “Against Meat” by the author Jonathan Safran Foer, he discusses his reasons for converting himself and raising his children to be vegetarian. In brief, Foer discusses why humans should not consume animals. Foer starts off the article by discussing his history with food along with his grandmother’s unhealthy obsession with food. Furthermore, Jonathan Safran Foer proceeds to tell the audience about how when he was 2 years old all the heroes of his bedtime stories were animals. Following this, Foer states that the first thing he remembers learning in school was how to pet a guinea pig without killing it.

Did you know, that the United States consumes about 24 billion pounds of meat every year? Meat and poultry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. For many, all that goes through their mind is how good it is and they chow it down without a second thought. It has become a habit, an act of second-nature. However, many are not aware of the way it was produced or where it comes from. In his 2009 New York Times essay, award winning novelist and New York University professor, Jonathan Foer considers the effects of consuming meat and argues that the contemporary ways in which the animals we eat are produced, is highly unethical. Specifically the conditions they are raised in, the genetic tweaks, and the inhumane killing process. He spent three years researching his book, Eating Animals, which was published on November 2, 2009.  It is clear he is not forcing his views on his readers, rather he is speaking to them on a more logical and emotional platform. Bringing to light the controversial ways of modern day meat production, he insists on more conscientious food choices. Foer is critically acclaimed for his persuasive writing techniques, staggering research, clever language, and graphically creative instances. His main claim is that meat is bad when it comes at the expense of animal suffering, danger to your health, and negative effects to our environment. To advance his claim he does the following: first,  he uses narration as a way to attract his audience attention and keep them engaged with the text, next, he employs the strategy of cause and effect, to help his audience to fully comprehend the results in his research, and lastly, uses convincing descriptions to appall his readers and to leave them in dismay. His audience is mostly mainstream, however, it specifically entices rhetoricians. It seems his main purpose is to inform his audience and educate them on the matter at hand.

My family and I have been a vegetarian for 2 years. Trader Joe's and The Whole Foods store have been a life saver for me, more expensive, However still more convenient than growing your own food and prepping it. Sometimes I’ll visit the Local Farmers market. Like Clemons or what use to Moms and Pops off Michigan. I have many options; still I have to be aware of where my food comes from and what is in it. I work hard for my family just as much as the next consumer; who wants their hard working dollars’ worth. Our families and loved ones that are being affected by what the FDA approve; an official that Americans trusts.

Foer 's journey started with the birth of his son. The author was concerned about the nutrition of his child. Before becoming a father, he described himself as an inconsistent vegetarian, because he ate meat only when he felt like that and intermittently practiced vegetarianism for a few years.

In the novel Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author discusses not only, the idea of vegetarianism, but tells us what happens in Factory/Commercial farming. Foer states the novel is not an attempt to not to convert the readers to vegetarians, but to provide the reader with the information on how the meat they are eating is processed. Foer also shows the reader how many people in America think through the book. Foer asserts that we have become detached from the animals, and this is what allows us to eat them and not think about they got to our tables.

The focus will now shift from vegetarianism in the 1970’s to Veganism in the 2000’s. Unlike the 1970 era, not all of the articles I found spoke highly of an animal-free diet. In April of 2007, Nina Planck published an article called “Death By Veganism.” The article told the story of Crown Shakur, a six-month old baby who died of malnutrition, weighing less than four pounds. His parents had him on a completely Vegan diet. Planck bashes the parents and the entire Vegan community, deeming a vegan pregnancy irresponsible. A month later, in the “Letter to the Editor” section, three readers wrote strong responses to Planck’s article, all claiming that it wasn’t the Vegan diet that killed the child, it was lack of breast milk in his diet. About five years later, in April of 2012, an article called “The Challenges of Going Vegan” by Tara Parker-Pope was published.

Despite the fact that less than half of the population in the United States is reported to be vegan there is no denying that it is a growing dietary trend. Whether or not people are becoming vegan or vegetarian due to reading books like Singer and Mason’s, The Ethics of What We Eat, or watching documentaries similar to Food Inc. there is a revolution happening in the way that people are thinking about their food consumption practices. The media allows one to observe the shortcomings of the agricultural industry and create their own ideas based on what was perceived. Moreover, this exposure allows for people to acknowledge that although the Standard American Diet is convenient and tasteful there are ways to slowly into becoming more ethical

The number of vegetarians in America has risen from 1% of the population in 2009 to 5% according to a recent study. As Elizabeth Turner, the editor in chief of Vegetarian Times said, “The vegetarian sector is one of the fastest-growing categories in food publishing. It’s a dedicated group of consumers that is growing daily.” This is because science has made advancements in research which shows that, in general, vegetarianism is a superior dietary option to non-vegetarianism because it is healthier and is better for the environment. Further studies have also shown that many animals are unnecessarily slaughtered and are treated cruelly and inhumanely during slaughter. Not only should vegetarianism be accepted, but it is, in fact, more beneficial to us and the world around

In the totality of the United States, there are around 7.3 million people that identify as a vegetarian. Although that may seem like a lot, that’s only approximately 3.2 percent of the nationwide population (“Vegetarianism in America”). Alternatively, that means that nearly 319 million people in America eat meat, and a lot of meat at that. Studies show that the average American eats almost 275 lbs of meat every year (ProCon). However, it’s been proven again and again by numerous studies that meat isn’t necessary for a balanced, nutritious diet but rather can be quite detrimental to humans and modern day society (Walker). Vegetarianism should be the globally accepted diet because of the numerous health benefits, a lessened impact on the environment,

Living a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle comes with enormous benefits such as reducing the possibility of diseases and cancers allowing one to live longer and also assist with losing weight through learning how to eat proper portions and the correct types of food. This is proven by Lap Tai Le and Joan Sabaté in their article, “Beyond Meatless, the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings from the Adventist Cohorts.” However, less than ten percent of the U.S population is experiencing these benefits mainly since the public is unaware of the perks of living a vegan or vegetarian

In 2008, 7.3 million people living in the United States reported eating a vegan or vegetarian diet (Harrison Interactive Study-2008). Now, less than ten years later, 16 million people have converted to veganism or vegetarianism. That is about 5% of the population in the United States. About forty-two percent of people following a vegan or vegetarian diet say that they decided to make the switch to a plant-based diet after seeing an educational film on animal cruelty. Sixty-nine percent of people abstaining from the consumption of animal products said they chose to be vegan for ethical reasons. A little more than half of the people who are vegan have only been following a vegan diet for ten years or less. It is possible that this sudden

Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke… All have been tied to red meat in recent years. Yet Americans still eat more red meat (beef, pork, lamb, and veal) than poultry and seafood combined. Last month me and the group of students from Loyola Marymount University went to Los Angeles Eco-Village, where we met Lois Arkin, the founder and executive Director of the Cooperative Resources and Service Project (CRSP) Institute for Urban Ecovillages at Los Angeles Eco-Village, and cofounder of its successive development organizations, the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust and the Urban SoillTierra Urbana Limited Equity Housing Cooperative. One of the students asked Lois a question, “If you had a chance to start over and build Eco-Village from scratch, what is the one thing you would change?” Lois said that the only thing she would change would be making the entire community vegetarian. At that moment, I did not completely agree with her. Vegetarian and vegan lifestyles have not yet become that affordable (both in terms of money and unresolved health issues) for every person on this planet. But this paper is not about choosing the right life style. I do not have anything against vegetarians or meat-eaters. But I think discriminating against an environmentally friendly person who is aspired to fight for sustainable living just because she or he is a meat-eater is absurd. We should respect every person’s choices. However, Lois made a valid point about the amount of harm that

Whether vegetarianism is on the rise or not, it is interesting to discover what drives a person to choose a vegetarian lifestyle. John Lawrence Hill, professor of law at St. Thomas University, School of Law, and author of The