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"Huge fan units - maybe ten fans, each about four feet in diameter - come on and shut off intermittently"(86).

Intermittent (adj.) : stopping or ceasing for a time; alternately ceasing and beginning again.

The intermittent pain bothered me throughout the school day.

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Again, I have so many quotes that I love from this book. Jonathan Safran Foer just seems to know exactly how to put my feelings into words.

"If you go to see Knut and get hungry, just a few feet from his enclosure is a stand selling 'Wurst de Knut', made from the flesh of factory-farmed pics, which are at least as intelligent and deserving of our regard as Knut. This is the species barrier"(76).

Just in case you don't know, Knut is a polar bear at the Berlin Zoo. This quote is such a good example of how we as humans decide which animals are more valued than others. For some we spend time and effort into rescuing and conserving, while others, which are equally intelligent, we spend our time and effort raising in horrible conditions and slaughtering.

"Sick animals are more profitable. The animals have paid the price for our desire to have everything available at all times for very little money"(111).

"Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected. Around 8 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected. Around 8 percent of birds become infected with salmonella....70 to 90 percent are infected with another potentially deadly pathogen, campylobacter. Chlorine baths are commonly used to remove slime, odor, and bacteria"(131).

"Once upon a time, USDA inspectors had to condemn any bird with such fecal contamination. But about thirty years ago, the poultry industry convinced the USDA to reclassify feces so that it could continue to use these automatic eviscerators. Once a dangerous contaminant, feces are now classified as a 'cosmetic blemish'...'Every week,' he reports, 'millions of chickens leaking yellow pus, stained by green feces, contaminated by harmful bacteria, or marred by lung and heart infections, cancerous tumors, or skin conditions are shipped for sale to consumers'"(134).

These quotes should concern many people. The conditions and genetic differences that factory farmed animals have from their original states is definitely not beneficial to anyone except the factory. Let's not even talk about animals rights for a second. Let's talk about the quality of meat. Chickens are now killed on average on their 39th day alive. This isn't even near their adolescence. They are genetically modified, injured, sick, yet that is the reality of the quality of meat people are getting nowadays. People will pay low prices for low quality meat (they might not know that), but how far are they willing to go before the quality of meat matters?

I love Foer's writing style because it knows how to reach an audience of people with many different views on eating animals. He has the sections of the book where he talks about the ethical parts of this topic, the ways the animals are killed, and the experiences that people have had seeing how the animals are killed. The mere descriptions of the animals as they are going to slaughter is enough to stop me from consuming meat. Personally I don't think my cravings for meat are worth the pain the animals and environment has to endure.The use of pathos is unbelievable. However, what I also love about his writing is how is also extremely fact based (but not boring, he has a way of putting his own voice into his writing). For someone who may not care much for the actual animals and pain they feel going to slaughter, these facts would appeal so much more to them. The disgusting conditions that meat is in when it is sold, the hundreds of diseases that it carries, and the lack of strict protocol when it comes to checking meat should at least make people concerned for their own health.

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Oct. 13th, 2016