Foodie fight: The meat debate

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By Sarah Montague Today programme

Why don't we eat dogs? That is one of the questions posed in Jonathan Safran Foer's new book, Eating Animals. He raises the question to try to get us to think differently about what we eat.

It was something we mulled over when I interviewed him over lunch at the Woodlands restaurant in central London. Not that he ate very much. He'd just stepped off a night flight from New York.

"My body's telling me it's 2.30am. However delicious the dhal, I might just give it a miss," he said.

We were joined by the foodie Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who, with me, tucked in to the vegetarian dishes put before us.

He, of course, is the man behind, and in front of, the River Cottage television series and author of many books, including a tome called Meat.

So why don't we eat dogs? Any answer to the question is illogical given what we do eat. Pigs, after all, are every bit as intelligent, feeling and playful as dogs. But could you give up bacon sandwiches?

This "cognitive dissonance" is what Jonathan's book seeks to address.

Is sticking to the grocers the only ethical option?

He writes in detail about the horrors of factory farming. He found it hard getting information from the industry, because it is so secretive, so he broke into a poultry farm in the dead of night.

His description of what he found is gruesome: 25,000 birds locked in a shed 50 feet wide and 500 feet long.

One of the campaigners writes in his book: "The factory farmers calculate how close to death they can keep the animals without killing them. That's the business model.

"How quickly can they be made to grow, how tightly can they be packed, how much or little can they eat, how sick can they get without dying."

It's the demand from consumers that the farmers are catering for - more chicken and as cheaply as possible.

Jonathan's book considers the culture that surrounds what we eat, and feeds that demand. He recalls that his grandmother's chicken and carrots was probably the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.

Abstinence

Nothing to do with how it was prepared, or even how it tasted, but what he grew up believing. Her culinary prowess was part of his family's creed.

Or, as he told Hugh and me over lunch, take that great American tradition, Thanksgiving.

Rather like our Christmas dinner, it is part of American culture for the family to come together to eat turkey. As he put it, never mind that the bird on the table would have been so ill in life that it couldn't reproduce.

His response is to forego the turkey, and indeed all meat, and enjoy a meat-free Thanksgiving that he claims is more thoughtful and so more meaningful.

Eating meat is engrained in British society

For Hugh, as you can probably imagine, the idea of becoming a vegetarian is anathema. Hugh agreed with most of Jonathan's arguments, except for the conclusion.

He argued that you can eat meat ethically if you buy organic. He claimed that, whilst it may not be the case in the US, the Soil Association here ensures that the "organic' label means something.

Both agreed that our choice of what to buy is like a vote. Jonathan SF accused Hugh FW of unwittingly using his vote to support the status quo. Even buying what you know has been reared well, and so is the exception, he thinks will support the rule and keep factory farms in business.

After all, if you see a fellow diner eating salmon you don't know how it's been reared and you may just decide to choose it too.

But for Hugh, Jonathan's vote for vegetarianism was like abstaining. And that, he argued, would change nothing.

However, Hugh acknowledged before we parted that he, the author of Meat, would be eating less of it as a result of reading Jonathan's book.

Do you think eating factory farmed meat can be ethically justified? Let us know using the form below or join the debate on <a class="inlineText" href="http://twitter.com/r4today">Twitter. </a>

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