Customer Reviews
Must read - By: VWB, 13 Aug 2010 
for anyone interestedin the long term impacts of our current farming methods & consumption habits..this book is amazing
Life changing - By: Allishenko, 04 Aug 2010 This book is hugely important. I thought I knew most of the issues raised but this has made it all much more personal. Also used to think buy organic & we've solved most of the problems but it's more complicated than that. Made me re-think taste, tradition, conscience. Just one thing, I really find it hard to read about cruelty to animals, & one description of abusein particular is really going to haunt me. I guess however that this book is mild compared to others & that we need to know the details. Partly a great read, partly disturbing; a powerful book.
An incredibly important book - By: John Martineau, 11 Jul 2010 
EATING ANIMALS has to be one of the most important books I have read for a long time. Focusing primarily on animal suffering, Safran Foer's beautiful & often mesmerising prose moves from chickens through pigs & finally on to beef to expose the deceptions & self-deceptions that the modern meat industry is built on. The book is skillfully crafted, both structurally & stylistically (particularlyin the first half). At the heart of the book is the simple question "Should I feed meat to my newborn son". By the end of his research into the subject he is a vegetarian & the book is about this journey of discovery.
Despite the book's brilliance there are huge ommisions which puzzle me & which I may relatein part to his own remaining eating choices. The first is his avoidance of any discussion of milk, butter & cheese. There is no discussion of the wayin which the dairy industry is the bride of the meat industry. Another weak area of the book is fish. Fish are squeezed into two or three pages. I suggest reading THE END OF THE LINE by Charles Clover, or see the film for more background on this. Finally, because of his emphasis on suffering, there is no mention of the parallels between the techniques & consolidations of the meat industry & those of seed companies like Monsanto. I suggest watching THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO for more on this.
However, these are small quibbles, & for what it's worth I, for one, have already changed my eating habits considerably as a result of reading this book. Any stack of printed pages which can do that is a testament to the power of the pen & if it turns out that we one day look back to 20th century eating habits & animal cruelty practices of our species with the same disgust that we now feel towards the practices of Nazi Germany then this book will have been one of the voices of common sense to help bring about an end to the current animal holocaust.
The Places We Hide From - By: Jane Easton, 18 May 2010 I think this is an amazing book - it's heartfelt, honest, isn't afraid to enter some uncomfortable places & asks a lot of necessary questions. It also gives voice to those on both sides of the fence, as it were.
As for the criticisms from some folk on this page, I work for a vegetarian campaign group so know that there aren't as many differences between US & UK/European farming methods as some critics would like to think. For example, the sow farrowing crate is stillin usein the UK - it causes immense suffering to these highly intelligent & sensitive animals but is allegedly slightly more humane than the US gestation crate - a couple of inches perhaps? (Thankfully it is destined to be phased out after a lot of campaigning). But most animal abuse is not being phased out. There is also a lot of nonsense talked about organic & free-range meat, frankly. Recent & verified undercover footage by the UK's Animal Aid has exposed appalling cruelty to animals -in Soil Association approved slaughterhouses, not only the usual suspects. So much so that there is a call to put CCTVin abbatoirs to try & stop the abuse. If we are honest & go beyond our comfort/self-interest zone, I think many of us know that animals go through hell. RSPCA Freedom Foods, for example is another scam - the abuses within many of their approved 'farms' have to be seen to be believed. If you don't believe me, check Viva!'s undercover footage. Basically, farmers aren't monsters, but they are human & under pressure from supermarkets & the like to deliver cheap meat, eggs, milk & so forth. It's always the animals who suffer. That's the bottom line. It's a brutal business & it all too frequently brutalises those who workin it. Even the more ethical M&S, Waitrose & such cannot be guaranteed. What do people th ink happens to a worker's head when s/he kills or 'processes' animals day after day? Massive brutalisation & desensitisation, that's waht. Frankly, unless you actually sit by an animal while it is being killed, its quick & painless death cannot be guaranteed. It's time to stop kidding ourselves. Our diet contains suffering & death. It also contributes to world starvation, water depletion on a terrifying scale, ditto deforestation, fresh & sea pollution, desertification - & of course, CO2 emissions on an unparalleled level. It also contributes to the massive risein heart disease, most cancers, diabetes type 2, obesity & all of the delights of the Western diet.
I'm a vegan of 10 years so perhaps it's obvious why I'd give this book 5 stars. However, I was also vegetarian for 15 years, went back to eating meat (for fairly spurious reasons) before finally going vegan. In other words, I understand the placesin the human heart that resist confronting the reality of what we eat. I also come from a Northern UK (Scottish & Yorkshire) family - basically, I grew up on lard! - so my changed eating patterns caused all sorts of reactions amongst family & friends. Another vegetarian writer, Carol J Adams, said that without even meaning to, the very presence of a veg*n at the table draws attention to who is on our plate.
I'm now a vegan cook - I teach, write about & cook great vegan food. It's really not about 'giving up' & things have changed amazingly since the 70s & 80s, believe me. Don't be afraid to try to reduce or omit animal products from your diet. You'll feel & look better, & can eat with a clear conscience.
Convincing and worth reading - By: Thomas Marlow, 13 May 2010 I really enjoyed this & have recently changed my meat buying habits because of it! A very well written introduction to why the meat industry MUST change.
