欧宝娱乐

I鈥檝e been a vegetarian for a few years now, and it was a long process that brought me here (literally too, I didn鈥檛 go cold turkey). I鈥檓 sometimes surprised by how little I thought about certain things throughout my life. And coming from someone who grew up with a face in a book, and his head in the clouds, I find this interesting. I over-thought and over-analyzed everything (or at least everything I thought about). I spent my days thinking about fantasy worlds and the future, about girls and relationships (of which I was not very adept at having), about what ifs and what could bes. I thought. I was philosophizing about the universe, and society, and the self long before I knew I was even doing it. And yet even with everything I thought about, there was so much that I never questioned, that I just took for granted.

The state of consumerism in our society makes it very easy for us to not question certain things (though I certainly can鈥檛 blame my choices on "the system"). We are so far removed from the process that brings things to our doorsteps and our dinner tables, that it usually takes an effort to even begin contemplating it. How many of us question where our tvs and laptops came from, how that cup of coffee got in our hands, who made the sneakers we鈥檙e wearing and how did this food got on our plates? I certainly didn鈥檛. And yet when we start asking ourselves these questions they become hard to ignore. That last of those questions becomes most salient when we start asking, 鈥渨hat鈥� was this food before it got to our plates?

I imagine many children one day suddenly realize they鈥檙e eating Babe for dinner and ask their parents why. Their parents probably tell them not to worry about it, and to finish their dinner, and most of them do, end of story鈥egetarianism averted. I was recently shocked to learn that as a child I actually went vegetarian for a year or two (I vaguely recall this). Without any real explanation to my mom, I just refused to eat any meat. When I started again, it was sparingly (once a week), and never ventured out past a few staple meats. I never ate pork (jewish schooling gave me an aversion to it, even though my family didn't keep kosher), I refused to eat seafood (it was gross), and mainly stuck with chicken and turkey. Even when I started eating steak I had to eat it well done. Thinking about it now I like to tell myself that deep down I knew what I was doing was wrong. That I didn鈥檛 eat seafood because it still too closely resembled the animal it had been before, that I couldn鈥檛 eat rare meat because the blood reminded me of what I was eating, and that I felt too sorry for all the other animals to eat them. This probably isn鈥檛 that unlikely, but I wouldn鈥檛 steak my life on it (pun intended), my general pickiness as an eater is kind of damning for my 鈥淚 was ethical but didn鈥檛 know it鈥� theory.

As an adult, the more I thought about the life and suffering of the animals that were sacrificed for my meal, the harder it became to continue eating them. I never watched any of those horrible factory farming videos, I didn鈥檛 have to, though I had some idea of the content. Having seen these videos now, I only wish someone had shown them when I was 15 because I would have been a vegetarian for 15 years now, rather than three. I鈥檓 sometimes baffled by individuals that are aware of the practices involved in the meat industry, but continue to support it (with their dollars and their dinners). I imagine there are two types. One intellectually believes they shouldn鈥檛 be eating meat anymore, but is held back from making the choice. I understand this state of being. I lived it. I struggled most of my life with acting on, and making a reality, my inner beliefs. How often do we say we鈥檙e going to start working out, or stop wasting time on this or that, and we never do it. I fully empathize with this predicament.

Then there are those who understand the system, but who don鈥檛 care, or don鈥檛 agree it鈥檚 wrong in any way. This second case is more baffling, though it shouldn鈥檛 be. The human ability to engage in cognitive dissonance (is that something you engage in?) is truly amazing. I鈥檓 sure there were plenty of good and kind people who owned slaves, men who value loyalty above all else but cheat on their wives, and though I doubt anyone reading this would rob a bank, how many of us have cheated on our taxes or stolen something from work? I imagine this second case consists of people who understand what鈥檚 involved in the meat industry, but don鈥檛 think that animals feel pain like us, or that their suffering is like that of a machine or a bug. Or who maybe buy into the fallacy that we need to eat all that meat to fulfill our protein requirements (I should note I鈥檓 not a vegan yet). Whatever it is, they feel the positives of eating that food outweighs any negatives involved in bringing it to their plate.

As if this wasn鈥檛 enough, the more I thought about the chemicals we pump into these animals, and the damage done to our environment and the resources we consume in feeding, housing, raising, processing, and transporting our food, I just couldn鈥檛 justify taking part in it anymore. The only thing left is the 鈥渂ut it tastes good鈥� philosophy, and I really do struggle sometimes to find sympathy for it. It鈥檚 worth noting I鈥檓 not the kind of vegetarian who is against the idea of eating meat in theory (it鈥檚 just dead flesh), but given the realities of our system I don鈥檛 find I have another choice for myself.

I鈥檝e always been an animal lover and the happenstance of our willingness to eat Porky but not Skippy strikes me as odd. This has been another tough part of society for me to come to grips with. As someone who wants to work in cognitive science, and who owns and loves two ferrets, I have to wrestle with the fact that much neuroscientific research is done on ferrets. We live in a world of contradictions and hypocrisies and this is not on the verge of changing any time soon. And I guess we each have to ask ourselves, how far are we willing to go to break out of the system and act on our beliefs?

I didn鈥檛 intend for this book review to turn into a story about me, but I think it鈥檚 a fitting way to write about a Jonathon Safran Foer book. Foer can weave a sad, funny, and heartbreaking story in beautiful prose like it's spilling out of his mouth. His stories are fantasy, but they are also personal journeys. In a way this book was about his personal journey to becoming a vegetarian, and the case he makes for it. I can鈥檛 think of a better way to recommend this book than to tell you about the personal journey I took, and direct you to Eating Animals if you want to read a thorough case for it, written by someone with more talent than yours truly, and an amazing ability to be frank, and yet empathetic and non-judgmental at the same time.. I should warn readers though, I only vaguely mention the fact that there are many problems with the meat industry, Foer goes into much more specific detail about these practices. If you're a squeamish person, you may have serious problems getting through this book. One half of me wants to tell you to not read this book to protect you, and the other half wants you to go through that if it makes you take stock afterwards...