Jonathon Safran Foer Webinar

a. Informative/Persuasive

b. Jonathan Safran Foer

c. Jonathon Safran Foer Webinar
d. Date of Access: October 28, 2014

e. The webinar presentation primarily cornerstones the idea of eating animals, which Jonathon Foer wrote a book about. He discussed his reasoning for being a vegetarian which is that he doesn’t agree with the way animals are treated and raised. According to the video and book, Foer’s goal isn’t to convert everyone into a vegetarian but to merely promote the idea of eating less meat.

f. A section in Foer’s Eating Animals is entitled “A Case for Eating Dogs”. It has a very satirical tone to it but it does have several valid points. One of them was that there are three to four million dogs and cats euthanized annually, which equates to millions of pounds of meat going in the garbage. This really stuck out to me and made me think of the idea of eating dogs in an entirely different perspective.

In the video, Foer mentioned that 76 million people get food poisoning each year. I have to say that I was a little surprised with the number. Especially since the prime culprit of the food poisoning is animal agriculture. This makes me want question every meat product I encounter: how was it produced and what’s it really made of.

Another stand-out moment was when we read “A Case for Eating Dogs” in which Foer asked his readers why dogs should not be eaten when pigs are when in essence the two have equivalent characteristics. Growing up in America, eating a dog is considered taboo because Americans believe that a dog’s purpose is to be a pet whereas a pig’s purpose is to be eaten. This made me realize that eating dogs isn’t wrong, it just seems wrong because Americans never have.

How It Can Relate to My Life:
This presentation may have not turned me into a vegetarian but it certainly gave a new perspective on eating animals. I understand why people eat dogs, but I still won’t. Because I grew up with a pet dog, it wouldn’t feel morally right for me. Also, I really am going to second guess my food every time I eat now, but I’ll still eat meat. Although my opinions and morals didn’t alter even slightly, I did learn quite a bit from Foer.