Jonathan Safran Foer's book, Eating Animals, I-I welcomed somebody who could, was maybe going to make an argument about vegetarianism.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Thank you so much.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Well I make no effort to educate or persuade people close to me.
Jonathan Safran Foer: that faces all of us.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Sometimes people say, "Oh why didn't you get a burger?"
Jonathan Safran Foer: So you can say something like, "You know I actually don't eat burgers I read this thing now available in paperwork by Jonathan Safran Foer --
Jonathan Safran Foer: one of the most successful tactics and moving toward, "I'm trying to eat less meat.
Jonathan Safran Foer: And for me it happens to be zero.
Jonathan Safran Foer: people who care, but are not going to care ultimately.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Most people are not going to become vegetarian any time soon, but I do think that confronted with these realities most people are ready to eat one
Jonathan Safran Foer: Because the-the danger when talking about these things is to reach right for the extremes, like the margins of the conversation, "Well you're vegetarian
Jonathan Safran Foer: Like, "Of course, but I guess unless you mean crazy."
Jonathan Safran Foer: So I try to buy good appliances.
Jonathan Safran Foer: As if like the slightest encroachment meant it's time to stop trying.
Jonathan Safran Foer: And if you imagine applying that standard to any other realm of decision making it's foolish; it's crazy.
Jonathan Safran Foer: It just doesn't make any sense.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Because it doesn't make the-the other person the topic of your conversation.
Jonathan Safran Foer: like some people find their values in the Bible, some people find their values in stories their grandparents taught them, but they all have, they ultimately
Jonathan Safran Foer: about like dominion and stewardship.
Jonathan Safran Foer: And this is, this is something that I felt as I was writing the book and I've been very, very happy in feeling like it's been shown out in the conversations
Jonathan Safran Foer: meat, or to eat less meat.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Thank you.
Jonathan Safran Foer: So in terms of eggs and dairy, I didn't include them because they just weren't in the scope of this book.
Jonathan Safran Foer: I mean I-I made a lot of decisions in the interest of having this be accessible and hopefully persuasive and sometimes that meant sacrificing comprehensiveness
Jonathan Safran Foer: crop growing crops kills animals, basically.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Beavers?
Jonathan Safran Foer: How do I know plants don't feel pain?
Jonathan Safran Foer: I don't know that plants don't feel pain.
Jonathan Safran Foer: in science so science gives us many, many reasons to think that other human beings experience pain in a way that's sort of similar to the ways that we
Jonathan Safran Foer: You know if you're proven wrong and it turns out the pig actually feels nothing, what have you lost?
Jonathan Safran Foer: Did you say an igloo or an emu?
Jonathan Safran Foer: Like an Eskimo house?
Jonathan Safran Foer: Right.
Jonathan Safran Foer: So -- male in audience: Wildlife of cows.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Salmon farming was developed for the reason you're describing to take pressure off wild salmon population.
Jonathan Safran Foer: the question does it taste infinitely good?
Jonathan Safran Foer: I mean things can taste better and better and better but do they taste infinitely good and is there anything that, is there anything that brings us more
Jonathan Safran Foer: Oh, sure. I don't know exactly, I've never addressed the screen before but -- commentator: Jonathan Safran Foer: How do we know their actually there?
Jonathan Safran Foer: Well, someone has one here so we might as well.
Jonathan Safran Foer: I guess I would just return to what I said before and-and finding a way to make it participatory and inclusionary rather than exclusionary, rather than who
female in audience: Jonathan Safran Foer: about the environmental effects and I've been thinking a lot about the environment so I'm just trying to eat less."
He collaborated heavily with Jonathan Safran Foer on Foer's bestselling "Eating Animals" in 2009.
And then the third one was -- Jonathan Safran Foer: Let's do one at a time 'cause I know I'll just forget otherwise.
She read a book called "Eating Animals" by James Safran .
-Hi, I'm Jonathan Safran Foer coming to you from my home in Brooklyn.
Best, Jonathan Safran Foer" And so Tyson Food is not any worse than any other company in the meat industry in America.
Jonathan Safran Foer: Well, farmers grow what we ask them to grow not what they want to grow.
So without further ado, here's Joshua Safran .
So one of the things we've done is try to bring Johnson Safran Foer into classrooms.
Now, in his book "Eating Animals," Jonathan Safran Foer spoke to a number of factory farmers about these issues.