Jonathan Safran Foer is my favourite writer of fiction. For years his work has earthquaked the world of storytelling for me. ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ is my favourite story ever told. I have found myself wandering around in the worlds he has built, in love with each of the characters so much so that ending a story feels like a death. I miss his characters like old friends stolen before their time. This is not the only time Safran-Foer’s words have, in effect, killed me.
Several years ago, at about 4AM I got to the part in ‘Eating Animals’ where he shares the stories of the pregnant cows whose calves are discovered inside of them at slaughterhouses. I’m not going to go into more detail here, because it’s the single most upsetting animal-related thing I’ve ever read. Maybe it was being alone in my dimly lit room with an angry rain pounding on the roof. Maybe it’s the way that the dark and the quiet disrobe all the defenses you cloak yourself in during the day. I found myself so sickened, the kind that makes it impossible to think of anything but the suffering you just has described to you. The room spins, your heart unable to take such pain. I remember thinking “We’re told as children that monsters don’t exist, but I’ll bet no one ever asked a farmed animal”. That night, Safran Foer’s work gutted me. A part of me truly died and in doing so, provided a thick, impenetrable layer of emotional cement over my decision to live as a vegan for the rest of my life.
The most recent time Safran Foer killed me was this morning at about 11AM, when I saw this:
Once I regained consciousness, I tried to go to my happy place, but found that it had been turned into a Chipotle commercial.
And then I just got angrier.
Even the title of his video is nauseating. An appeal from Jonathan Safran Foer? An appeal? He is now appealing to us to eat “happy” chickens?
An appeal is worth celebrating when it promotes a just alternative. An appeal is not what happens when a burgeoning, elitist, niche market wants some hooky campaign to lure in well-intentioned eaters. Out of all the things to make an appeal on behalf of, it’s the “alternative” poultry producers who deserve the benefits of your endorsements, Safran-Foer? Do you really want to be any part of a club that allows Joel Salatin as a member? How about an appeal on behalf of the billions of farmed animals who die needlessly each year? How about an appeal to support the life-saving work of groups like Farm Sanctuary Vegan Outreach or Igualdad Animal?
I get it, you want to take a gigantic swing at the factory farms (who doesn’t?). But why stop there? Instead of taking advantage of a person’s inclinations towards empathy by promoting a form of farming that is still unnecessary, and capable of the same atrocities so often only cited as being present in factory farms (e.g.: mutilations, intensive confinement, separation of mother from baby, forced impregnation, “culling”, killing off male babies, etc.), why not advocate for a healthy, just and sustainable vegan lifestyle?
But anyone who has ever seen Safran-Foer speak knows that he’s no Gene Baur. Safran-Foer never even went fully vegan. He admitted when I saw him speak that he eats cheese from “farmers’ markets”, yet another one of those meaningless umbrella monikers that evoke the imagery of idyllic pastoral farmscapes, where farmer and cow march hand in hoof through golden fields. Don’t get me wrong, food accessibility and supporting organic, local fruit and vegetable producers is important to me. But I’m also not so easily fooled anymore. I have the answers, because people helped me learn the right questions. Now what I see at farmers’ market is actually shocking. It’s like people’s brains actually stop processing information when they are standing at a makeshift wooden stall being sold something by a person in a plaid shirt with a twinkle in their eye and soil under their fingernails. Instead of star-struck everybody’s farm-struck (y’heard it here first). Who cares if they can whittle or they make their own rugs, CHEESE FROM A FARMERS MARKETS IS STILL F$*KING CHEESE!
Image courtesy of John Beske
Is it really possible that Safran-Foer, a seemingly free-agent (read: fence sitter) when it came to actually taking a position and sticking with it, is now nothing more than a particularly clever puppet for the foodies? Despite speaking so eloquently about the inherent moral dilemmas of using animals (whether under the banner of factory farming or “free-range” farming), it would appear that he can now sleep easy having recommended that well-intentioned people simply buy into a newer, shinier myth that says “humane” farming is not only possible, but apparently common enough that “there’s an app for that”.
One thing you’ve got to give them props for is their straightforwardness. “BuyingPoultry.com”. Nothing says “alternative”, and “animals are not mere production units” like BuyingPoultry.com. But seriously– doesn’t the name reveal the same distanciated, distorted relationship with farmed animals that he argued so against in ‘Eating Animals’?
At this point the question that remains is: will Safran-Foer manage to kill me a fourth time? If his shenanigans persist, it’s highly likely. My imagination is running laps. I can just imagine all the fan mail he’s getting from the backyard butchers, and the free-range hucksters. Can’t you just see Michael Pollan emailing “Hey Jon! Thanks for finally coming to your senses! Pig roast @ my place on Saturday. Don’t worry, we eat the whole pig. Bring your friends!”
*Special thanks to John Beske for the use of his image!*
maybe we all have to remember that the “famous” authors and other celebs; those we thought had something insightful to offer, after all, are just people – some with glaring foibles. I’m a bit surprised you didn’t see it coming with Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s a disappointment of sorts, when you are let down by people you thought were “on your side”, but maybe it’s one of those things that helps to make us stronger.
it isn’t that i was “surprised”, nothing can really surprise me when it comes to seemingly committed celebs (whether in hollywood or brooklyn) downgrading their commitment to the movement. i know in safran-foer’s case he was always a bit of a fence-sitter anyway, but that is entirely different than openly advocating for an app like buyingpoultry. com. it’s upsetting because it’s so public. same with ms. portman. it’s like “ok, natalie, you want to eat eggs and dairy because ‘your body craves it’? at least have the decency to do it in a hole in the ground. why issue a statement to the world that makes veganism look so unappealing/difficult/unnatural?”
Hollywood is where critical thinking goes to die in order to be reborn as narcissism.
Natalie Portman goes vegan. Was extremely loud about it.
Natalie Portman wants a cupcake, is too lazy to go to find a vegan one: http://supervegan.com/restaurants.php, http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=vegan+bakery+los+angeles&oq=vegan+bakery+los+angeles&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i7j0j0i5.8930.9627.4.9783.7.6.0.1.1.5.485.2047.0j1j1j1j3.6.0…0.0.mRnIAdghCe8&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=aa371a1c4c8326fa&biw=1280&bih=669
This is where she should have shut up, but instead sends out a press release informing the public that she’s no longer vegan, uses misinformation and her pregnancy to “justify” it.
Plain fact is most people out there look to narcissistic, self-serving celebrities and other assorted public figures for cues on how to live and how to fill their time. While they’d all be better off shaping their own existence, educating themselves, reading, then thinking for themselves, most do not. That’s what bugs me about Natalie Portman, Foer, and others who practice The Renege. If NP and JSF were critical thinkers, or even independent thinkers, they’d think about the effects of their actions instead of thinking about how they’re perceived by a nincompoopish public.
Natalie Portman went vegan in the first place because she was emotionally affected by Eating Animals, but when push came to shove, she sucks at commitment. She’s lazy and she might even be cheap, because she could always have gotten an assistant to get a vegan cupcake for her, or had it delivered. (Btw, I heard once that Mariah Carey has an umbrella holder and straw holder on her payroll)
On top of all this, Natalie Portman also lacks acting skills. As for JSF, I’ve not read his work, never will.
As for why they send out press releases on such asinine developments … Because they know they’ll be seen by the public. NP sent out the release so that she won’t be seen/caught shoving a non-vegan baked good into her cakehole.
I saw this video clip just yesterday and I’m still reeling, speechless. The only word that swam into consciousness was/is WHY?? You so eloquently have found words to express my feelings about this. My grief, yes GRIEF is too deep to articulate. Hopefully this is all just a silly joke. Sadly my guess is it’s deadly serious…:-(
Thanks for the comment, Jen. Let’s just take comfort in the fact that A LOT of people have been upset by this. I’m sure he’s hearing everyone loud and clear right now…
Why are people acting so surprised? He never had any commitment towards nonhuman animals in the first place.
The vegan community needs to support and promote it’s longtime advocates, more so than raising celebrities up for jumping on the bandwagon. Natalie Portman disappointed me when she ditched veganism due to her pregnancy (even though tons of vegan babies are being born each year and are shown to be healthier than those raised on formula and antibiotic laden milk from genetically modified cattle) and now this. Don’t even get me started on Dita Von Teese. AR and veganism is about everyday people adopting a plant based diet. We need to vet our heroes.
Yes, exactly. Longtime advocates who comprehend the concept of commitment and ‘why veganism’ in the first place are the ones deserving of our attention.
I’m glad your eyes have been opened to Safran Foer’s shortcomings. I think your post shows some understanding of why animal welfare regulations fail and suggests that all animal exploitation is unjust, but I find one reference troubling. You say, “How about an appeal to support the life-saving work of groups like Farm Sanctuary Vegan Outreach or Igualdad Animal?” and “…anyone who has ever seen Safran-Foer speak knows that he’s no Gene Baur.” Your message falls down when you highlight the work of those who do NOT explain Veganism as an essential moral behaviour and key to ending exploitation. You just might consider removing the references after reading these two posts:
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/a-monumental-decision/
and
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/new-welfarism-fails-on-its-own-terms/
You’re moving in the right direction, keep it up.