by Arthur Worsley
M.A. Psychology, Oxford. McKinsey Alum. Founder & Editor at TAoL.

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Eating Animals (2009)

by Jonathan Safran Foer

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One-Sentence Summary

Eating Animals is a part-memoir, part-investigative-journalism philosophical dive into the darkest corners of our dining habits in this fascinating exploration of what we eat and why - by novelist and nonfiction author, Jonathan Safran Foer. (341 pages)

Contents

1. One-Sentence Summary

2. Eating Animals Summary

3. Eating Animals Contents

4. Best Eating Animals Quotes

6. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Note: This Eating Animals summary is part of an ongoing project to summarise the Best Health Books and Best Self Help Books of all time.

Note: This Eating Animals summary is a stub. I'll write a full summary later. For now, you'll find enough meta-data here to help you decide if it's worth reading the book.

Eating Animals Summary

This publisher’s blurb comes from the Hatchette paperback version of Eating Animals

“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.”

Eating Animals Contents

Eating Animals has 8 main chapters…

Storytelling
All or Nothing or Something Else
Words / Meaning
Hiding / Seeking
Influence / Speechlessness
Slices of Paradise / Pieces of Shit
I Do
Storytelling

Best Eating Animals Quotes

These Eating Animals quotes come from The Art of Living's ever-growing central library of thoughts, anecdotes, notes, and inspirational quotes.

"While it is always possible to wake a person who's sleeping, no amount of noise will wake a person who is pretending to be asleep."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"Not responding is a response - we are equally responsible for what we don't do."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn't motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn't enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when?"

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand, without all the science I've discussed, that something terribly wrong is happening. Our sustenance now comes from misery. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film. We perhaps know more than we care to admit, keeping it down in the dark places of our memory-- disavowed. When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"I can't count the times that upon telling someone I am vegetarian, he or she responded by pointing out an inconsistency in my lifestyle or trying to find a flaw in an argument I never made. (I have often felt that my vegetarianism matters more to such people than it does to me.)"

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"If nothing matters, there's nothing to save."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"We can't plead ignorance, only indifference. Those alive today are the generations that came to know better. We have the burden and the opportunity of living in the moment when the critique of factory farming broke into the popular consciousness. We are the ones of whom it will be fairly asked, What did you do when you learned the truth about eating animals?"

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable. Cruel and destructive food products should be illegal. We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabeled side effects. And we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

"Vegetarians and vegans (including athletes) 'meet and exceed requirements' for protein. And, to render the whole we-should-worry-about-getting-enough-protein-and-therefore-eat-meat idea even more useless, other data suggests that excess animal protein intake is linked with osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones in the urinary tract, and some cancers. Despite some persistent confusion, it is clear that vegetarians and vegans tend to have more optimal protein consumption than omnivores."

- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

Read More: 5 Books Like Eating Animals

Enjoyed this Eating Animals summary? You might enjoy the rest of the books on these lists of the Best Health Books and Best Self Help Books of all time.

And in the meantime...

Here are 5 top books like Eating Animals...

1. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande (FREE Summary)

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Being Mortal is an uncomfortable yet enlightening exploration of how treating terminal disease (especially linked to ageing) as a purely extend-life-at-all-costs medical problem is destroying the final moments of our lives - by surgeon and best selling author, Atul Gawande.

Published 2014 // 282 pages // Rated 4.4 over 155,700 reviews on Goodreads

2. Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker (FREE Summary)

Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Why We Sleep is a fascinating and accessible guide to what sleep is, why sleep matters and how to optimise your sleep habits to live longer, feel happier and set your life up for success - by sleep scientist and best-selling author, Matthew Walker.

Published 2017 // 368 pages // Rated 4.4 over 125,800 reviews on Goodreads

3. How Not to Die - Michael Greger (FREE Summary)

Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

How Not to Die is a deeply researched and compelling primer on the promise and importance of whole food plant-based nutrition in preventing and reversing disease - by medical doctor and nutrition expert, Michael Greger.

Published 2015 // 576 pages // Rated 4.4 over 31,000 reviews on Goodreads

4. Born to Run - Christopher McDougall (FREE Summary)

A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Born to Run takes takes running back to its roots in this critically acclaimed analysis of evolution, injury and recovery that is filled with compelling insights, great story telling and practical tips - by best-selling author and journalist, Christopher McDougall.

Published 2009 // 287 pages // Rated 4.3 over 186,300 reviews on Goodreads

5. The Body - Bill Bryson (FREE Summary)

A Guide for Occupants

The Body is a fantastically-written and awe-inspiring 23-chapter tour through the 30 trillion cells that (literally) make you who you are - by best-selling author, Bill Bryson.

Published 2019 // 450 pages // Rated 4.3 over 58,200 reviews on Goodreads

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