With cream cheese.

Well now, I finally got around to reading the book. I was pleasantly surprised. It is decidedly NOT some kind of anti-meat polemic from a true believer in animal rights, but a very personal exploration of the issue. And by "personal" I don't only mean Mr Foer, but some of those he presents in the book. Yes, there are statistics and gruesome descriptions, but they don't really characterize what is at the heart of the book. At the heart of the book are choices we make about food and why we make them, and how culture, tradition, remembering and forgetting (his grandmother survived the Holocaust), and, of course, taste.

The book is not really "literary" in any typical sense, but Foer indeed shows the signs of a literary type. His main focus throughout the book is on stories and storytelling. Sometimes this makes the book odd. He tells (or rather, let's them themselves tell) the stories of a vegetarian rancher and a vegan slaughterhouse builder, among others, and while I personally think it's effective storytelling, the choice to include them is off-beat, to be sure.

In the end the book is mostly about him confronting his own conscience in light of his own cultural tradition as an American and a Jew, and how he chose to re-evaluate those traditions when he learned he was going to become a father.

In the end, the book is much better than I expected.

Will I become a vegetarian? Not in the literal sense. I think that should I crave a steak, I might decide to eat one. But for now, I have chosen to eat in such a way as to deny as much support to factory farming as I can. I certainly won't be going to KFC again anytime soon, though I looooooove fried chicken. I can live without it. And for my day-to-day diet I'm not going to eat meat. I figure that if everyone the world over would cut their meat consumption down to five percent of what it is now, the corporations who have taken over the farming industry would bail out and find other exploitations to pursue. And that is what this is about. Not meat eating as such, but corporate farming. Meat aside, the corporate take-over of farming has destroyed millions of human lives by taking away their pride, their livelihood, their tradition, their culture, their connection to the land, and ultimately their contribution to the history of civilization through respect for animals and the land.

But enough of this.

I recommend y'all read the book yourselves.

Perhaps the problem then isn't whether we eat animals or vegetables at all. Perhaps the problem is the gargantuan amounts of both that we consume. If that's the case then how can we effectively implement moderation? Probably has to start on an individual basis. Certainly can't be forced, that's contrary to the nature of moderation. I think. Not really sure. Just thinking out "loud."

Critter, you're certainly thinking somewhat along the lines I am. It's not just the gargantuan amounts we consume, but the gargantuan amounts we throw away, and our complete indifference to how things get on our plates.

BTW, did you ever show pictures of your Ratfink tattoo? I missed that somehow.

I did at some point. Is hazey
I agree with your comments on most people not knowing how things get on our plates.
Tom Brown Jr addresses this in one of his wilderness survival books. When he was learning survival and tracking he had to kill a deer with a knife. Things didn't go as planned and he basically ended up having to strangle it. He had to stare the animal in the eye and see the fear and pain. He saw the real consequences of killing another living thing. This was a profound moment in his life. It also illustrates something else behind showing reverence for the things you have to kill, if you really love and respect the things you are killing then you are probably going to be less likely to do so when it isn't necessary. I hope so anyway.

Good luck with that...there's thousands and thousands of animals I'm not eating, and I am an animal eater.

I have a big appetite! lol!!

Just make sure you eat it all with a side-order of bacon.

That's one way I've been thinking of approaching my new diet: always order the vegetarian option, but with a side order of bacon.

Bacon makes everything taste better. Manufacturers have even figured out how to put it in chocolate bars now. Brilliant!

So, three weeks without meat and...

...

...

...

...I'm STARVING! Seriously, I feel hungry ALL THE TIME. My wife says it's psychosomatic. I think that my stomach is missing something, though it doesn't know what.

Will this feeling pass?

What have you been eating? What are you doing for protein? Are you eating eggs, fish, milk, nuts, etc?

I'm eating lots of fake meat, usually made of tofu. Last night in the bar I had something called, "Jaegerschnitzel", which is a schnitzel with a mushroom sauce.

It was OK. Not like the real thing, though.

My beer intake has also increased. Seems that if you give up one thing, you've got to make it up somewhere else. When I quit smoking I increased my beer consumption. When I quit meat I increased my beer consumption. My wife has refused to have sex with me for over a year. So I increased my beer consumption.

At this rate, quitting smoking and meat and sex and living "healthier" is going to kill me through alcoholism.

Ha!

You might want to see about talking to a nutritionist to help you make sure you get the right proportions of everything.
For proteins, your body doesn't utilize even soy-based proteins (the "holy grail" of veg proteins) as efficiently as, say, eggs or chicken. Most of the time you have to utilize food combination to increase the quality of a vegetable based protein. For example, rice and beans. Seprately, niether is a complete protein, together they are.
But, protein isn't all that meat has to offer. You have to replace the meat based fats with more oils. If you have a salad, ADD OIL!
Meat has fat soluble minerals which the fat helps to assimilate. If you eat lettuce without oils then you won't get all of the nutrient value. Maybe sprinkle some sesame seeds on it too.
Anyway, that's just the tip of the icebergh.
This guy: http://www.cbass.com/
I think has some food combos listed that will give you better protein combos with plant and grain foods. If not you can email him, he responds pretty quick.
He eats meat, but not much, so he knows a lot about eating healthy veg.

I would definitely talk to a nutritionist. A vegetarian diet has to be well designed to be healthy.

Huge, I mean really huge, green salads, broccoli, cooked green vegetables, and less on the grains will help. Beans and nuts are also very helpful. Three weeks in is generally a tough time. It generally takes the body about six weeks to totally respond to a change in diet. And of course, More sex, less alcohol.

Flax oil is your friend.

Right. Should I send you my wife's email address, so that you can tell her that?