Eating Animals

I've just finished the book 'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer and what an eye-opener.  Now that I know where meat comes from and how these animals are treated, I don't know if I can bring myself to eat it again.  Vegetarianism, you have a new member!

Forget about those fantasy farms, where animals are cared for, fed nutritious food, kept on huge plots of land behind picket fences and are given names like Babe. Today, 99 per cent of the animals that Americans eat are factory-farmed. In Australia the figure is about 85 to 90 per cent. To find out what's happening in Canada, click here. 

Factory farming, which handles 450 billion land animals every year globally (KFC alone is responsible for the death of 1 billion (yes, with a B) chickens a year), is the villain of Foer's book.  Animals – often housed by the tens or even hundreds of thousands – are genetically engineered, restricted in mobility and fed unnatural diets which almost always include drugs like antimicrobials . . . " Excruciating lives followed by terrifying deaths.  

The purpose of factory farming is not to feed people but to make money. Animals are just the means. Much pain, terror, suffering, ecological damage, public health risk and waste result. “Factory farming is the last system you'd create if you cared about sustainably feeding people over the long term".

If you are ever curious about what you're putting into your bodies at meal-time, why that chicken is so big and juicy, what that '11% liquid' is listed in the ingredients on your poultry's packaging, or if you want to do more for the environment, read this book!