Introduction
The book Eating Animals is openly discussed by Foer on the necessity of protecting non-human animals. Human beings have had a natural attraction to anal meat since ancient times which makes humans resort to killing thousands of animals to get their wish. The concept of factory farming implies the idea that we have to eat more vegetables since rarely an animal dies. As a vegetarian, the author holds that all humans can be saved from several ailments with more vegetable consumption. Therefore the increase in vegetable consumption can protect a lot of creatures from endangerment. The book also deeply discusses vegetable farming as a topic which details how food can be produced all year round and the best seasons for vegetable farming to make more money for farmers. Animal agriculture and modern meat production, according to author Jonathan Safran Foer, are morally wrong, nature–defying, and a source of diseases, as evidenced by climate change and lessening compassion.
Safran Foer has based his claims on three primary themes: issues associated with the design and operation of a factory farm, pollution problems connected with the meat production process, and the human health impact and influence of meat consumption on the likelihood of future epidemics and pandemics. The first subject matter, Foer discusses the conditions in which animals in factory farms are injected with antibiotics, maimed, and confined. Cultivation of meat, which is the farm factory we refer to, is nothing but a converse of the commercialism of life that animals live. Chickens often live in cramped spaces, each getting on average less than a square foot. Killing piglets that reach puberty too late by beating their heads against the floor prevents unnecessary costs to the animal from being overfed as their meat quality will not be high. The beaks and tusks of both chickens and pigs are cut off surgically to prevent them from fighting. An animal cruelty synonym is the term “factory farm”.
Animals are mistreated on factory farms. The first farm that Foer ever visited was an egg farm; he writes about it on page 91. Chickens in this farm were confined into very small cages which were stacked in so many rows. There were too many hens restricted in a single enclosure to allow any kind of mobility. All the other animals just walked on top of dead animals, they were moving themselves as much as they could when they were dying. Factory farmers see how close the animals are to being dead already on the pages of 92 in Foer’s book. We mention how ill or hungry the animals can be before they die, and we concomitantly inform how tiny a portion of food they can eat before they die (Foer, 125). The author takes a look at brain damage, depression, miscarriage, and other pregnancy problems in industrial farming and the consequent pollution. Treated with hormones the animals may become a health threat to humans that eat the meat of these animals for a living.
However, antibiotics are given without the need which leads to the formation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and severe respiratory illnesses. Antibiotics pre-emptively are misused in factory farms by being administered to animals who are not sick (Foer 74). This is because of an increase in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria that come from those farms with time. The reason is that most of them can be transmitted between animals and humans, and the possibility of it being a pandemic on a global scale is very high. Foer brought out how industrial farming exerts horrendous effects on the environment in terms of water and air pollution and deforestation. Every day factory-farmed animals are excreting around 1 million tons. Frequently, cattle are medicine unabsorbed antibiotics. They are intended for the treatment of infections and the prevention of diseases which could be transmitted in warehousing conditions.
The premise and logic from Foer’s article come to an end in the sentence “It is inhumane to tolerate the factory farm.” By living peacefully with our ecosystem, we are instead purposely ruining it through industrial farming. Foer emphasizes how modern civilization has turned meat production into an immoral and dangerous business by the book. It hurts us, too but it displays a heart-breaking degree of ruthlessness towards other species. A perfect utopian food system would be able to provide both nourishment and bind people together. Families gather around a table at mealtimes, colleagues enjoy their lunch together, and friends make plans to eat and talk, as do many families with a special shared-meal tradition they celebrate over the years. During the first two chapters of the book, Foer discusses his interest in food stemming from his grandmother’s dinner table. (Foer 210). His grandmother survived World War II, and as a result, she was forced to forage for “other people’s inedible: decaying potatoes, chunks of abandoned meat, skins, and that which meated with bones and pits (Foer 5).
In conclusion, Foer invites us to imagine what it would mean to belong to a culture where meat is living creatures which are processed into hot dogs and chicken nuggets. These practices have become completely normalized. Foer ends with his statement: “To accept the industrial farm feels unnatural” (Foer 135), summing up his main argument. Many thousands have read Animal Eating and the conclusion I have come to is that animals of all kinds are more important than humans from a geographical point of view. To minimize the risks there comes up a joint strategy developed by the government and the security services. He is not saying that we should not consume meat, but he is recognizing the ethically wrong current relationship that we have with the meat industry.
Work Cited
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. Little, Brown and Company, 2009