Eating Animals

(Little, Brown & Company) Jonathan Safran Foer oscillated for years between omnivore and vegetarian, only vaguely considering his personal relationship with animals. When he became a father, however, he began to wonder how he could explain to his son why it was okay to love animals in children’s books yet also okay to eat them. Or why it was okay to eat a chicken but not George, the beloved family dog. Impelled by his responsibilities as a father, Foer set out to discover what exactly meat is, how it gets to our tables, and how we define what is acceptable to consume and what isn’t. His search involved alarming visits to factory farms in the middle of the night and observations of pig-slaughter operations, but it also involved conversations with remarkably mindful animal farmers. In his exploration of the environmental and social effects of factory farming, he also probes his own instincts about right and wrong, relating personal stories that influenced his decision to become a vegetarian. Foer is also the author of the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close .