Eating Animals

Jonathan Safran Foer

Nov 2009 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is the groundbreaking moral examination of vegetarianism, farming, and the food we eat every day that inspired the documentary of the same name.

Bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. For years he was content to live with uncertainty about his own dietary choices but once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important.

Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions and the fictions involved with creating them. Traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer raises the unspoken question behind every fish we eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we grill.

Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is a book that, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, places Jonathan Safran Foer "at the table with our greatest philosophers" -and a must-read for anyone who cares about building a more humane and healthy world.

Ratings and reviews

I didn't realize when I stumbled on this book last week that it would make such an impact..I had a chicken salad just two hours before... Not knowing it would be my last meal containing meat for a long time.

I've been vegetarian off and on for twenty years and read many books on the subject. This one is well researched, argued with passion and never talks down to you. I would recommend it to any intellectual questioning the subject.

Would have rated it five stars if I hadn't found it dry in some parts, otherwise very informative and life altering. I can't imagine eating an animal after reading this.

About the author

Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Eating Animals. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages. Everything Is Illuminated received a National Jewish Book Award and a Guardian First Book Award, and was made into a film by Liev Schreiber. Foer lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the novelist Nicole Krauss, and their children.