Per my review at http://baltimorereads.wordpress.com/2... 
 "Food matters and animals matter and eating animals matters even more. The question of eating animals is ultimately driven by our intuitions about what it means to reach an ideal we have named, perhaps incorrectly, 'being human.'" (p. 264) 
 Let me begin by saying that I believe that anything tastes better with bacon, I have successfully completed the Wendy's/McDonalds/Burger King trifecta on two separate occasions, and one of the reasons my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving is because of that 20-plus pound bird on the center of the table. I am the epitome of an omnivore, which is why I put off reading Eating Animals for over a year now. But my love for anything Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and my realization that my diet of chicken tenders and Italian subs probably isn't very healthy prompted me to crack open the chronicle of Foer's three-year investigation into the secret and very shocking world of factory farms. My only regret is that I read this eye-opening account the week before Thanksgiving, the biggest food-centered day of the year. 
 Some of my thoughts going into Eating Animals: 
 1. Humans have been eating animals since the dawn of man. 
 2. We're higher up on the food chain - eating animals is just part of the circle of life. 
 3. There's no way anyone would package up and sell meat that is unsuitable to eat. 
 In retrospect, I was attempting to justify my unwillingness to eliminate meat from my diet. All of my thoughts were completely valid but also completely uninformed. Foer points out throughout Eating Animals that the evolution of farming into a corporate, factory-centered business has led to a disconnect between humans and their food. We don't understand where that chicken on our plate has come from or what it had to go through to get there. Instead of accepting that that piece of chicken is loaded with artificial flavoring to mask the fact that it was once a genetically mutated, diseased, drugged up animal that never saw the light of day and was mercilessly slaughtered in an assembly line, we ignore the food's source completely to essentially avoid one of today's biggest moral dilemmas. 
 Eating Animals is not a vendetta against omnivores. It is not trying to persuade anyone that eating animals is wrong and that everyone should convert to vegetarianism. What it is, is a thoroughly researched and incredibly written report on the current world of meat production - which is in a shockingly horrible state. After all of his time reading about factory farms, talking to farmers and slaughters, and ruminating over his own moral thoughts, Foer comes to the conclusion that the act of eating animals is not wrong, but that contributing to the monopoly that is the factory farming system is unethical. Eating animals that have been allowed to live an inch from death and die a painful, sadistic death at that is an act that shouldn't fly under the radar as it has since factory farming began. Considering factory farms produce almost all the meat we eat, we as consumers are up against a lot. A lot needs to be accomplished if we want to live in a world in which the turkey on our table at Thanksgiving is free of growth hormones and unnecessary water weight and the chicken that laid the eggs in our omelets was allowed to see the sun and walk outside. We need to support local farmers, spread awareness about the realities of factory farming, and discover more humane methods of raising and slaughtering animals destined as food. Just becoming a vegetarian is not enough; reading Eating Animals is certainly a good place to start. 
 I discovered that I was not the only one in the dark about the true nature of the unnatural world of meat production. Since finishing Eating Animals, I have discussed it with friends and family members, who mostly say the same thing. "We're humans, we've always eaten meat...It's just who we are...If it was wrong we never would have done it in the first place." True, but that is not what Foer is attempting to prove at all. He is trying to show anyone who will give his book a shot that through supporting factory farms not only are we mistreating animals -- we are destroying the environment, our own bodies, and our moral selves. No amount of explaining does Foer's work justice; I always end the conversation by conceding, "You just have to read it."