Eating Animals

This week, I read the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of the non-fiction novels Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (which I highly recommend) and Everything is Illuminated. I have been a vegetarian for about two and a half years now, converted by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (another fiction writer's venture into non-fiction food writing), the documentary Food,Inc., and Michael's Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. I have actually consciously avoided reading futher vegetarian/animal rights/factory farming books, because I'd rather learn new things than just read for confirmation bias. However, a friend recommended this one, so I gave it a go.

First of all, Jonathan Safran Foer is a fabulous writer. He begins this book with the story of his grandmother, who spent many years of her life starving and was therefore obsessively concerned with the nutrition of her family. Far from being simply an exercise in feeling morally superior, this book provided me with lots of new information and things to think about (notably, Natalie Portman credits this book with turning her from a 20-year vegetarian to a vegan activist). In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan does a great job investigating sources of food, and in documenting problems in the cattle industry; however, the cattle industry is just the tip of the iceberg. Foer discusses commercial fishing, and the industry standard practices for the raising and slaughter of chicken, turkey, and pigs. Interestingly he challenged Pollan on some points- perhaps most notably when an heirloom turkey farmer declares his distaste for Joel Salatin's chicken farm, upheld as an ideal of farming in both The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food, Inc. 

There is so much material worth discussing in this book, perhaps I will dedicate later blog posts to it. However, to keep this post reasonable, I will just end by recommending that everyone read this book. No, it is not always pleasant- parts of it felt like a modern-day version of The Jungle. Many people are reticent to learn more about the meat industry, because everyone knows that what they find will be ugly and then they'll feel compelled to change their behavior.

But why don't we want to know what we're buying? We spend our money on it, we use it as a source of energy, by eating it we allow it to become a part of ourselves. So why wouldn't we want to know what we're allowing to be such a big part of our lives? Consumers have the most power to change the meat industry in America. Laws can be made, and loopholes will be found. But if people refuse to buy a product that does not meet their standard for humaneness, or environmental protection, companies have no choice but to change their practices.

See an Index of Information on Poultry from Eating Animals here

Imagining Food

It follows that food, being a huge part of everyday life, also has a significant presence in literature. This week, NPR's Picture Show posted an article about Dinah Fried's series of photographs, in which the artist photographs meals created based on the literary descriptions in classic literature.

Like this representation of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland...

Or this envisioning of a meal from To Kill a Mockingbird.



I like these photographs because they offer a new way to put yourself into the shoes of the character. They are photographed about as they would look if you were the one sitting at the table, prepared to eat the meal. They give you a tangible image of the setting in which you find yourself, and one can imagine looking up and around seeing the rest of the scene laid before your eyes in vivid detail.

This series also made me reflect on the role that food plays in literature. Sensory details play an important role in the description of any setting, however taste is not always applicable. Though sight, sound, smell, and touch are always applicable, taste is not. In spite of this, the description of meals adds greatly to the reader's understanding of the character of a place. For example, in the Harry Potter series, Harry eats stale bread, cheese, and soup, and is always hungry. Part of what creates your understanding of Hogwarts as Harry's true home, and infinitely better place, is that there are tables laden with good food every day, frequent feasts, and a variety of delicious, magical things to try. Appropriate use of food culture can bring the reader into the story just as much as dialect can.

So, cheesy Participation Question of the Day- if you were going to photograph a food scene from a book, which one would it be?

Of Soda Bans and McDonald's Calories

McDonald's has announced that starting this week, it will voluntarily begin posting the calorie content of its food on the menu for all customers to see. Under the health care reform bill, all restaurant chains with more than 20 locations will be required to post their calorie information, so McDonald's seems to be putting the requirement into place early. The theory behind posting calorie information is that consumers will make better decisions and companies will have incentive to produce healthier products, thereby reducing societal health problems related to obesity and diabetes. This makes perfect sense to me- in New York City, where local law requires the posting of calorie information, seeing the calorie counts had a big impact on my food purchases. But some studies have shown no difference in food purchases when laws like this are implemented. Why is that? Are consumers already aware of and indifferent to the high caloric content of their food? And what does McDonald's hope to gain by posting this information?

The other big food-related story this week was that New York City has added yet another controversial law to its books. The city has already banned trans-fats and requires calorie listings, but this week it banned sodas over 16 oz from being sold by restaurants, cafeterias, and concession stands. Supporters call it an important step in the war against obesity, but many people feel the law is too strict, and infringes on their rights as consumers. On the one hand, there is really no good reason to drink soda, and it is a major source of sugar with no nutritional benefits. Generally, I tend to support New York's tough food laws- the government, after all, has a vested interest in a healthy population. And it isn't as though people are being banned from drinking soda all together, or can't get more than 16oz of it if they feel so compelled. It has simply been made more inconvenient to do so. On the other hand, I can see why people get nervous about the government making a law which effects their personal, day-to-day decisions.

What to do with September 11th?

So, this blog is supposed to be about food now. But it’s September 11^th, and I have to do something about September 11^th. Every year, I find myself wondering about this, and I don’t know. What am I supposed to do with September 11^th? 

I don’t have any special 9/11 story. No relatives or friends in the towers, no military parents, no very personal connection to any of it, really. But I remember where I was, just like everyone else does. I was at Orchard Park Elementary School, standing in line with the rest of my class after our Spanish hour, waiting for our teacher to come get us. And waiting and waiting and waiting. And when she did come, she came walking quickly, and with a strange look on her face, and another teacher with her. They spoke in a whispering huddle with the Spanish teacher for a long time. And then she took us back to our normal classroom, and she sat us all down, and she told us what happened.

But it didn’t mean anything right then. I didn’t know what the World Trade Center was; I didn’t know what the Pentagon was; I didn’t know what it looked like when a plane smashed into a building. She told us that we didn’t need to be afraid, but I didn’t even know I had anything to be afraid of. I was eleven and in the fifth grade, and I didn’t know much of anything about anything. People just a few years younger than me probably don’t remember much about that day at all. As the years go on and on and we all grow old, my peers and I will eventually be among the last few who do remember.

But I don’t think that any of us know what to do with September 11^th now. The memorials get smaller and for the most part we go about our business. People don’t seem to think about it, they don’t mention it during the day, and you’re allowed to schedule normal events on it now. And I know that as the years go on, that will probably become more and more true. Maybe it’s better that way. Maybe we need to just go on about our business. Maybe if we’re too sad, the terrorists win. Maybe.

I certainly don’t blame anyone for not wanting to think about it. I hate that it’s called Patriot’s Day- the word “Patriot” just brings back memories of freedom fries, and bitter elections, and wars founded on lies. Plus, there isn’t much about September 11^th that makes me feel particularly patriotic. All those people in the towers and the Pentagon didn’t go to work that day with any idea of being martyrs for the cause of freedom. It was a mass murder and that doesn’t make me feel especially devoted to my country; it just makes me feel sad. So I don't feel like I can commemorate 9/11 by celebrating America, although maybe that would be the most positive way to do it- to focus on our identity as a unified nation, one that has recovered and held it together. But that doesn't seem right either. This doesn't feel like a unified nation to me, and it doesn't feel like we've recovered either. I don't think you ever really recover from something like September 11th, you just make a new normal. And that's where we live now.

But still, I want to keep mourning the kind of hate that causes this kind of thing to happen, because it will never stop being a tragedy. I don’t want to pretend that September 11^th happened and is all over, when the repercussions are still reverberating all over the world. I don’t want to forget that the 3,000 people who died that day were just the beginning the thousands that would die in the ensuing “War on Terror.” I want to commemorate the day that everything changed. I want to pray for peace. I want to think and talk about what kind of world I live in, and why. Especially for me, and the people my age, even if we were young and we didn’t really understand, we were raised in the aftermath of September 11^th. We, of all people, the group that will be the last ones to remember, should stop and reflect on the events that turned our world into the one it is now. 

And this year, I guess that’s what I’ll do about September 11^th.