jonathan safran foer

The popularity of "Eating Animals" could bring a happy twist of fate for some otherwise unlucky Thanksgiving turkeys. In his new hit book, Jonathan Safran Foer writes that we eat foods native to America on Thanksgiving to acknowledge our freedom from European powers. But he questions if the foods we feast on make sense.

And what would happen if there were no turkey?   -Jonathan Safran Foer

 

Oh, wait, no. That's just the lie that meat eaters tell themselves to justify their refusal to take responsibility for their own destructive choices. In fact, with its wide array of freshly harvested delights, Thanksgiving is a cornucopia for vegans.  

Trying to become a vegetarian is harder than quitting smoking. For many years, I toyed off and on with the notion of not eating any dead animals. When I was 13 years old, I saw a cow butchered in my sister-in-law's father's meat processing plant in Chickasha, Oklahoma.  

Even if animal rights and animal welfare advocates don't anthropomorphize mammals and fish and birds, they want us to think about these creatures as sentient beings who feel pain and terror, and they want us to think about the horrible lives and deaths those beings suffer so that gluttonous human beings can stuff their faces with fleshy protein. The more uncompromising are against the eating of any animals. Others promote humane, old-fashioned agriculture, while denouncing the consumption of animals bred

that give animals a good life (a life as good as we give our dogs or cats) and an easy death (as easy a death as we give our suffering and terminally ill companion animals).   -Jonathan Safran Foer

 

This month brings the publication of Eating Animals —a vegetarian's memoir and manifesto, a Peter Singer sort of guide to a Michael Pollan world, the third book by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. In support of it, the author and his publisher have concocted a short Web video . When I watched it over dinner last night, it put me off my lamb shoulder chop (medium rare) only in its unpalatable tone, which is extremely cute and incredibly twee. It's but the latest reflection of the ways that such clips—"book t  

When my info-larder gets too packed, it's time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. Get 'em while they're hot. • For years, Barry Estabrook reported on food politics for Gourmet Magazine and its Web site. In a sense, he played the role of the conscience of the foodie set—at the margins of a magazine devoted to celebrating the latest cooking techniques, ingredients, and vacation hotspots, Barry gently but tenaciously informed pleasure-seeking readers about issues like the brutal economics  

Safran Foer will read and sign copies of his latest work, the non-fictional "Eating Animals." 400 S. State St.; South Loop. 6 p.m. Free. ROAMING COUGARS: If you hear news reports of a cougar loose in Wicker Park, don't worry. It's most likely not a randy older woman or the four-legged creature, but the indie-rock band Cougar. The group plays with openers 1000 Vertical feet at Subterranean . 2011 W. North Ave.; Wicker Park. 9 p.m. $10. 21 and older.  

Al Gore signs Our Choice on Tuesday, November 24 , at Borders on State.  

Have you noticed lately that vegetarianism has been on the upswing?