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What is singer's argument against eating meat?
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In Michael Pollan’s “An Animal’s Place,” he wavers between the idea of if it is right to eat animals. Pollan first begins to think about the issue after reading “Animal Liberation” by Peter Singer. In this narrative, Singer argues why it is wrong to eat animals. Singer states that animals deserve rights because they are able to suffer just like humans. While Pollan reads it, he tries to understand Singer’s views and counteract his arguments. Throughout Pollan’s work, he appears to not make a definite stance on the issue until later on in the text. Towards the end of the text, he provides evidence based on evolution to show it is ethical to eat animals. Pollan believes it is ethical to consume animals and animal products due to the concept of …show more content…
According to Pollan, “predation is not matter of morality or politics; it, also, is a matter of symbiosis” (Pg 691). Pollan describes the relationship between the wolf and the deer. While it may seem quaint, the deer needs to be hunted by the wolf in order to control the population and overall well being of the species. Without wolves, the deer population will spiral out of control until there is not enough resources available to sustain the whole population. In this case, the deer will begin to starve and will stop producing young as a result of the lack of resources. While the wolf is depended upon in nature to preserve a balance, so is man. Pollan believes that humans have taken over the predator’s ecological role in many areas, and it is because of the need for balance that it is ethical to eat animals. There are also other learned behaviors and traits humans have that Pollan uses to express his …show more content…
Pollan writes that while humans do not necessarily need to eat meat for survival, the desire to eat meat is “reflected in the design of our teeth and the structure of our digestion”(Pg 693). Much like wolves and other predatory animals, humans have canine and incisor teeth to tear off meat, along with molars to chew and break down food. If humans were not meant to consume other animals, than our front teeth would be less sharp and our molars more flat in order to adequately breakdown vegetation. The act of hunting other animals has also affected humans. Pollan states that, “Under the pressure of the hunt, the human brain grew in size and complexity, and around the fire where the meat was cooked, human culture first flourished” (Pg 693). Hunting has allowed humans to become complex thinkers as a result of having to create tools in order to successfully hunt prey. Pollan believes hunting has evolutionarily and socially created humans to be the way we are
Jonathan Safran Foer wrote “Eating Animals” for his son; although, when he started writing it was not meant to be a book (Foer). More specifically to decide whether he would raise his son as a vegetarian or meat eater and to decide what stories to tell his son (Foer). The book was meant to answer his question of what meat is and how we get it s well as many other questions. Since the book is a quest for knowledge about the meat we eat, the audience for this book is anyone that consumes food. This is book is filled with research that allows the audience to question if we wish to continue to eat meat or not and provide answers as to why. Throughout the book Foer uses healthy doses of logos and pathos to effectively cause his readers to question if they will eat meat at their next meal and meals that follow. Foer ends his book with a call to action that states “Consistency is not required, but engagement with the problem is.” when dealing with the problem of factory farming (Foer).
In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, he retells the story of a young man named Chris McCandless by putting together interviews, speaking with people who knew him, and using letters he writes to his companions. Chris McCandless also known as Alexander Supertramp is a bright young man and after graduating from Emory University with all honors, he abandons most of his possessions and travels around the west, making long lasting impact on whomever he meets. He then hitchhikes to Alaska where he is found dead. In chapter 14 and 15, both named “Stikine Ice Cap”, Jon Krakauer interrupts the boy's story and shares his anecdote of going to Alaska to climb a dangerous mountain called the Devils Thumb. Krakaure’s purpose is to refute the argument that McCandless is mentally ill because many others, like Krakauer have tried to “go into the wild” but they are lucky to survive unlike McCandless. While describing his climb, Krakauer exhibits through the descriptions of and uncertainty about personal relationships.
In Michael’s Pollan article, the author seeks to inform whether or not it 's correct to consume animals and the treatments they receive. Many animal right activist believe
Did you know that today, 2.1 billion people – nearly 30% of the world's population – are either obese or overweight because they ate unhealthy food and didn’t exercise? After reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, I have learned about all the opportunities right here in Rochester that have to do with eating more local food. We should eat more local food because it is healthier for us and it helps the environment.
Throughout the last century the concern of animals being treated as just a product has become a growing argument. Some believe that animals are equal to the human and should be treated with the same respect. There are many though that laugh at that thought, and continue to put the perfectly roasted turkey on the table each year. Gary Steiner is the author of the article “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable”, that was published in the New York Times right before Thanksgiving in 2009. He believes the use of animals as a benefit to human beings is inhumane and murderous. Gary Steiner’s argument for these animal’s rights is very compelling and convincing to a great extent.
Michael Pollan’s purpose of writing Omnivore’s Dilemma came about when he realizes that society is unbelievably unhealthy due to the abundance of food. The two conflicting logics that Pollan introduces are the logic of nature and the logic of industry; these two logics are reflected through various ways of raising livestock animals. The logic of nature consists of raising livestock animals in a pastoral environment where animals interact with one another and avoid the use of artificial chemicals; whereas, the logic of industry settles on raising livestock animals unnaturally. Growing cattle through the use of corn has allowed meat to be produced in large quantities and in a short time as described in the chapter “Feedlot: Making Meat”
As an advocate of animal rights, Tom Regan presents us with the idea that animals deserve to be treated with equal respect to humans. Commonly, we view our household pets and select exotic animals in different regard as oppose to the animals we perceive as merely a food source which, is a notion that animal rights activists
from our animality is a large question, but surely the human fear of death figures in the answer” (6). From this quote, Pollan conveys the idea that we as humans believe we are superior to animals in all aspects of our lives and deaths. Humans are not only the top of the food chain in most cases, but when it comes time to experience death, we jump to an unprovable conclusion that we experience death in a different and unique way. However, as humans we must justify the superiority of human death, otherwise the death of an animal by human hands would make that individual hunter a murderer. Pollan references the quote anticipating that most of his audience feels the same way, but he also references it because it is unlikely that a majority of his readers have actually given a deeper consideration to this thought. By highlighting this uncertainty it leaves his audience no choice, for a moment, to face this reality that mankind has formed. In his article Pollan guides his readers down the path of uncertainty by allowing his readers a glimpse into his personal convictions. For example, the comparison he forms between “stumbling upon some strangers pornography” (6) and the “trophy portrait”(6) of him posing in front of the slaughtered boar shows the disgust he felt after having time to reflect. The
In the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author talks about, not only vegetarianism, but reveals to us what actually occurs in the factory farming system. The issue circulating in this book is whether to eat meat or not to eat meat. Foer, however, never tries to convert his reader to become vegetarians but rather to inform them with information so they can respond with better judgment. Eating meat has been a thing that majority of us engage in without question. Which is why among other reasons Foer feels compelled to share his findings about where our meat come from. Throughout the book, he gives vivid accounts of the dreadful conditions factory farmed animals endure on a daily basis. For this reason Foer urges us to take a stand against factory farming, and if we must eat meat then we must adapt humane agricultural methods for meat production.
Michael Pollan presents many convincing arguments that strengthen his position on whether slaughtering animals is ethical or not. He believes that every living being on this planet deserves an equal amount of respect regardless of it being an animal or human, after all humans are also animals. “An Animal’s place” by Michael Pollan is an opinionated piece that states his beliefs on whether animals should be slaughtered and killed to be someone’s meal or not. In his article, Pollan does not just state his opinions as a writer but also analyzes them from a reader’s point of view, thus answering any questions that the reader might raise. Although Pollan does consider killing and slaughtering of animals unethical, using environmental and ethical
...e Animals and Satisfy Meat Eaters?” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 21.6 (2008): 580-96. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
Tom Regan, “The Case for Animal Rights,” in In Defense of Animals, ed. Peter Singer (Oxford:
“An Animals’ Place” by Michael Pollan is an article that describes our relationship and interactions with animals. The article suggests that the world should switch to a vegetarian diet, due to the mistreatment of animals. The essay includes references from animal rights activists and philosophers. These references are usually logical statement that compare humans and non-human animals in multiple levels, such as intellectual and social.
People love to eat meat. For over two million years, humans have relied on eating meat in order to survive or simply just because they enjoy the taste. Early humans had more powerful jaws and larger teeth and relied on meat as one of their main sources of food. As evolution took place and humans evolved, they developed smaller teeth and were only able to eat the meat if it was cooked. With humans evolving and being able to survive on foods other than meat, meat does not have to necessarily be a part of human diet anymore. Although many people have opted for a vegetarian lifestyle, most people still continue to eat meat and do not consider it a cruel act. Many have also stopped eating meat due health risks and environmental concern. Whether
In the second chapter of Animal’s People, its protagonist Animal talks about eyes, eyes that fill the darkness, that appear whichever way he looks, and look for things to see. He says eyes come whenever he starts talking, they quietly watch and patiently wait, and then settle like flies on the pictures that are born from everything he says.