eating animals interview

I know we've been talking in class a lot about JSF's purpose for writing the book - whether it be to convince everyone to become vegetarians, to stop factory farming, or to simply understand where the food people eat comes from. Here's a quick interview that focuses more on JSF's opinions instead of the facts of factory farming.

VegNews: There has been huge buzz surrounding your New York Times Magazine article, modeled on Eating Animals. Following the NYT's shocking exposé about E. coli, your piece further advocated against meat to a mainstream audience. What are your thoughts on the progress of vegetarianism?

Jonathan Safran Foer: Between 25 and 30 percent of Americans now are vegetarian, vegetarian-leaning, or vegetarian-inclined. Those aren't exactly clearly drawn lines, but the notion of trying to eat less meat being good for us ... has totally infiltrated every part of America. In the last couple of years, there's been a really dramatic movement, which you can either describe as being away from factory farming, or towards vegetarianism. In my book, I argue that those are very similar movements. Too much energy is spent distinguishing between those two things when in fact, I met lots and lots of farmers in the last three years, and the ethic that family farmers espouse has so much overlap with the PETA ethic.

VN: Do you think working with these local farmers and trying to find allies will help eliminate factory farming?

JSF: Well, one can move in many directions at once. I think it's clearly what most of the big players in the movement have chosen ... I would never eat a product of some of the very best farms I went to, but I would also have a hard time putting all my energy into arguing against them. I went to farms where—in a very objective, straight-forward way—I have to admit they treat their animals better than I treat my dog. But of course, I don't kill my dog at the end. Now there's still a reason I wouldn't eat what they make. A large part of that is because I think by eating any of it, you're implicitly endorsing factory farming.

VN: What do you think is keeping people from making the connection of factory farms to the meat on their plates?

JSF: Peoples' responses to food, the reason they take it so emotionally and so many smart, informed people continue to eat this stuff—it's not because they're ignorant, it's not because they're evil. It's because there's a large component of our decision-making that isn't reasonable. The challenge is to persuade people, or show people, even those parts that aren't reasonable, things like cravings, are actually better satisfied by not eating them.

I think the better way to talk about it is like a series of these choices. Like how can one try to make the best choice as often as possible? The "best" meaning the choice that is in line with their values. Despite the array of values that Americans have, if everyone ate his values, nobody would eat factory farmed meat. And I think, frankly, very few people would eat any kind of meat. Nobody's values lead them there. It's only forgetfulness.

http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=1061&catId=7