food for thought

I am currently reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals. I was always very reluctant to know about the horrors of factory farming, because I preferred living in oblivion. Basically, I did not want any emotions or guilt to interfere with my eating habits. But now that I'm a bit older and less hedonistic when it comes to food, I decided I should be more responsible with my life choices especially since food is something that is such a central part of our lives (and the fact that JSF is my hero has nothing to do with any of this... ahh who am I kidding... or course it does).

But anyway, as I read more and more about the mass production of meat, eggs, & fish farming, I really wonder how did things get so bad?

I like my meat. And I have nothing against people eating animals (hey~it's the food cycle), but it's pretty disgusting how far the meat/egg/fishing industry will go to get the most bang for their buck. And I'm not saying that animals are in any way equivalent to humans. But just because we are the "superior" species, doesn't mean that we have to treat animals as cost-efficient commodities for our greedy, gluttonous minds. I honestly wouldn't mind paying a little more for my meat if it meant that it would improve factory farming standards. And not only for the poor little animals, but for our own health and the overall environment.

But the more I read, the more helpless I feel.

JSF on "Sentimentality":

The value of emotions over reality. Sentimentality is widely considered otu of touch, weak. Very often, those who express concern about (or even an interest in) the conditions in which farmed animals are raised are disregarded as sentimentalists. But it's worth taking a step back to ask who is the sentimentalist and who is the realist.

Is caring to know about the treatment of farmed animals a confrontation with the facts about the animals and ourselves or an avoidance of them? Is arguing that a sentiment of compassion should be given greater value than a cheaper burger (or having a burger at all) an expression of emotion and impulse or an engagement with reality and our moral intuitions?

Two friends are ordering lunch. One says, "I'm in the mood for a burger," and orders it. The other says, "I'm in the mood for a burger," but remembers that there are things more important to him than what he is in the mood for at any given moment, and orders something else. Who is the sentimentalist?

more on this later.