Once I read about humans dining on puppy dogs, I knew that "Eating Animals" was unlike any book I had ever read.
As a Texas native, I am more than comfortable with the idea of hundreds of head of cattle being herded to the Fort Worth stockyards. Vegetarians, with few exceptions, simply do not exist in cattle country.
As I continued reading, the appalling descriptions of how animals are kept on factory farms began to affect me.
In Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," I found it unsettling to know that such ill treatment of animals and disgusting food hygiene practices were a part of America's past. After that, Foer's book seemed to me like a pale imitation—a rip-off. He's not the visionary he's lauded to be—it's much simpler. Foer is a muckraker. He points an eager finger at the villains of his book—the food production corporations—insisting that corruption is amok and conspiracy lies beneath it all.
"It's when you become radical or extreme is when people get hurt," said Matt Serra, adjunct assistant professor of psychology.
Foer's direct approach to exposing the farming industry seems radical, especially when you look at his vehement campaign against the United States farming system. There is always danger in writing a book like "Eating Animals"—even if it is only the risk of having meat thrown at you, as Foer admitted he feared during his orientation week talk. Muckraking, however extreme it may be, holds an important place in the history of American activism.
Shortly after "The Jungle" was published, the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 were passed, making federal food inspection and regulation standard. Thanks (indirectly) to Sinclair, we have labels on our food and at least a moderate degree of confidence that nothing wayward found its way into the sausage.
A similar book, Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," argued against uncontrolled pesticide usage, particularly DDT. The threat of the loss of birdsong was evidently enough to spur the United States into action. DDT was banned in 1972 and worldwide in 2001. Carson was criticized for muckraking, but look at what her book accomplished!
Maybe Foer's bold approach to criticizing the farming industry will lead to the passing of a law regulating living conditions of farm animals. The pregnant sows in cages too small to turn around in could, one day, be roaming a wide pasture outdoors, indirectly thanks to "Eating Animals." The "organic" and "free-range" labels could one day actually mean something. A nearby farm might, one day, actually bring one's land value up. One day, "Eating Animals" might be called a success.
Although there is always a danger in being extreme, in putting it out there for all to see, it all comes down to one simple fact: Being extreme sometimes works.
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