Please please research the percentages on what contributes to global warming, and in particular, what percentage factory farming contributes!!! You’re argument, and I am assuming this is an argumentive essay, is one-sided. Thank you.

I’m a person who became vegan after reading Foer’s book. I went through a few stages of processing that all started with the basic premise of the book that spoke to me: applying my true and deeply held ethics to what ends up at the end of my fork. I was already land animal meat-free (which at the time I thought was a Big Fat Deal) specifically because of factory farming practices. But I had never extended that information to dairy. His explanation of eggs changed that for me. I spent the better part of the next three weeks trying to figure out how to get eggs and milk within the context of my personal ethics (no suffering and no death for my food). After extensive hunting and searching, I realized that it was a pipe dream to think I could ever find such a thing. Even the dream of finding chickens who lived out their full lives (and who happened to produce eggs that would otherwise go to waste if we didn’t use them) was dashed when I followed the logical progression of where people get the pullets that they raise. Even in that case, I would be supporting factory farming hatcheries that kill the newborn boys in horrific ways. I had the same problem with dairy, and will never contribute to a baby being killed so that its food can be sold (or even given away). But his approach left space for ME to go through that search, and respected ME enough to trust that I would come to an ethical decision. Most others outright tell people what the only ethical choice is, and chastise anyone who doesn’t follow along. I find that beyond unhelpful to most folks who aren’t easily shocked or hammered into thinking a certain way.

The real point was that the book did not steal my process. It treated me with respect and like an individual who can be trusted to make good choices. THAT is why this book is so successful, IMO. It treats people with kindness and as though they are valuable, ethical beings….it reminds us of our power as thinking, reasoning people able to draw ethical conclusions on our own without predetermined conclusions being imposed onto us, predigested by others. And it eases us into a very scary topic without flooding us all at once with information that would shut people down.

I think this book is one of the more valuable things to happen on the topic of animals used for food in a very long time.