A Pragmatic Primer for Making a Difference: The Way We Eat |
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June 23, 2006
By Paul Shapiro
In the preface to The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, Peter Singer notes that when he and Jim Mason last co-authored a book, the animal protection movement focused largely on animals used in research, circuses and the fur industry. Singer asserts that this was "an odd set of priorities," as the number of animals raised and killed for food in the United States eclipses the number of animals used for all other human purposes combined. In other words, the most abused animals were also the most ignored. Fortunately, this is no longer the case a quarter-century later. A farm animal advocacy movement is growing in the United States.
But after a hopeful beginning, a journey through agribusiness shows how massive the problems are. Singer and Mason follow three families and examine how their food choices affect others: animals, the environment and other people.
The Hidden Costs
Through these families' dining habits, we learn how the overwhelming majority of animals raised for food suffer immensely on industrialized factory farms. Egg-laying hens live in battery cages too cramped for them even to spread their wings. Mother pigs are confined in crates too narrow for them to turn around. Chickens raised for meat are selectively bred to grow so fast that they are often crippled by their unnaturally massive bulk.
People as well as animals pay the hidden costs for many foods. The authors discuss the lives of agricultural workers—some of whom are essentially modern-day slaves, they note—and detail the toll agribusiness takes on the environment, neighbors of factory farms and public health.
Perhaps the book's greatest strength is the authors' unwillingness to accept dogma or orthodoxy. While it's well established that most farm animals in our country have bad lives, they reject many commonly held views.
Beef Is Better Than Eggs?
For example, Singer and Mason explain that it isn't always better for the environment and workers to buy locally-produced products. Small farms and restaurants aren't necessarily more ethical than larger operations. Terms like "organic" and "animal care certified" may not mean all they imply. Not all plant-based products require fewer resources to produce than all animal products. While some people shun red meat for animal welfare reasons, beef is among the most ethical animal food choices one could make if buying animal products.
This pragmatism pervades the book. Rather than demanding purity, the authors show that while abstaining from animal products is generally best, making ethical food choices need not be an all-or-nothing endeavor. Singer and Mason say that if Americans simply reduced meat consumption to 1950s levels, not only would it "improve health and slash health care costs....It would also reduce the number of animals suffering on factory farms by about the same amount as if roughly 80 million Americans became vegans."
Singer and Mason conclude by ranking the foods we buy according to ethical criteria. Accepting that many people will not remove all animal products from their diets, they detail which animal products cause less suffering than others. On one point there is little compromise, however: Singer and Mason assert that "no one should be supporting the vast system of animal abuse that today produces most animal products in developed nations." In other words, buying products like battery cage eggs, crated pork and veal, or foie gras is simply not ethical.
A Tool for Change
Our food choices have ethical implications that simply cannot be ignored. The Way We Eat is an excellent investigation into today’s food production systems. Rather than outlining black and white prescriptions about morality, Singer and Mason offer a realistic approach to determining what the preferable ethical choices are when we sit down to eat. The book is an extraordinarily useful tool for anyone seeking to reduce the amount of suffering they cause, and, perhaps more importantly, as a gift for those who might not have considered food in an ethical light before. There is little doubt that The Way We Eat will help fuel the nascent farm animal movement that is finally beginning to make measurable gains in the United States.
Paul Shapiro is the director of the Factory Farming Campaign for the Humane Society of the United States.
See the Video
Factory Farms Slideshow
Related Links
Humane Eating and the Three Rs
A Brief Guide to Egg Carton Labels and Their Relevance to Animal Welfare
A Brief Guide to Meat and Dairy Labels and Their Relevance to Animal Welfare
Choice Eats: Chicken-Friendly Products
