Analysis Of An Animal's Place By Michael Pollan

Is eating meat a detrimental threat to the environment? This debate over meat’s involvement in the global warming crisis was what inspired Nicolette Hahn Niman to write, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma.” Niman hoped writing, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma,” would cause her audience to understand that eating meat, raised on traditional farms, was a superior alternative to vegetarianism. Niman supported her claim by explaining how industrialized farms and vegetarians produce more of the three greenhouse gases that caused global warming, than that produced by traditional farms. Niman’s article fell short of being effective due to flaws in her supporting evidence and conclusion.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma was written by Michael Pollan and published in 2006. He wrote the book to inform consumers about where their food actually comes from and some of the different ways and processes that food is grown and processed to bring it to the grocery store shelves or the farmers market. Pollan had a very interesting approach to showing consumers just exactly where their food comes from through a type of documentary stance. First, he tried to follow the industrial food chain, from a bushel of corn from a field in Iowa along the complex and strange path it takes to end up in a fast-food place. Secondly, he follows the pastoral food chain by exploring alternatives to industrial food and farming by looking into organic and local food

These eaters ignore the politics concerning food rather looking for esthetics and quick service. Due to these disregarding’s, the industrial eaters won’t ever realize that eating responsibly is a way “to live free” (2). Berry then lists off seven points regarding how to eat more responsibly for the passive consumers. These points range from “[participating] in food production to the extent that you can” to “[learning] as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if possible, of the life histories of the food species” (Berry 4-5). Berry also believes that it’s important for the animals that meat comes from to have lived a pleasant life.

Pollan must kill a chicken, something that is difficult for him to do, to see exactly how the food he eats get prepared and packaged at a store. He explains how the media’s perception of animal processing is limited and how people do not truly know the amount of effort it takes to make their food. He then wraps up his book by killing a boar with a local hunter to try to make a meal out of everything he has grown or killed himself. He relates this to the hunting and gathering societies of the past. Pollan is satisfied with the meal, but concludes that times are changing and people are not paying attention to their food.

He states that Fred’s pleasures do not make it morally permissible to torture puppies. This is compared to livestock in factory farms because, they undergo the same kind of torture and abuse. His conclusion is that, torturing puppies and eating meats from factory raised cattle are one in the same and is immoral. Machan addresses two different issues in his argument, animal rights, and animal liberation. Although they are fundamentally different subjects they are both contributed to animals for the same reason.

Rhetorical Analysis “Down on the factory farm” The last thing that comes to our mind when we order a piece of steak at a restaurant is how that animal we are about to eat was being treated while they were alive. According to author Peter Singer’s article "Down on the factory farm” he questions what happened to your dinner when it was still an animal? He argues about the use and abuse of animals raised for our consumption. In Singer’s article he states personal facts and convincing statistics to raise a legitimate argument.

Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345).

A Rhetorical Analysis of “Against Meat” by Jonathan Safran Foer The standard way of thinking about vegetarianism has it that you either are one or you are not. While it is rarely discussed between omnivores and herbivores over dinner, vegetarians often fall into a category more accurately described as conscientious meat eaters. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s essay, “Against Meat,” he describes his personal plight to become, and remain, a vegetarian through-out his life.

To begin, when talking about animals it can be a very sensitive subject mainly because the way animals are treated on farms, and how no one feels the need to question these actions. This is because many people feel this issue doesn’t concern them. In this essay Matthew Scully discusses the issue on how animals are treated and how they should be given more respect, and attention. Matthew Scully argues that animals in these factory farms are wrongfully treated, he uses biblical references and addresses the morals of humans to get conservatives to act on this matter.

Thesis There is a growing consent that factory farming of animals or concentrated animal feeding operations is morally

His argument seems convincing at the time by the way he conveys his beliefs in a forceful and

Imagine a day in the life of a common farm animal. Far from the peaceful grazing life one would envision, the livestock of today endure horrific conditions - from suffering painful diseases to being separated from their mothers at too young of an age. Not only are these conditions harmful to the animals, the food produced by them is unnecessary to humanity’s well-being and can even be damaging to society’s overall health. Since the definition of ethics is having well-founded standards of right and wrong, this process of producing meat for our consumption is unethical.

The meat packing industry disregards animal’s emotions and their rights all together by the malicious treatment of animals. The way animals are being treated is highly unfair. Being slaughtered for their body parts and suffering just to be used for protein or an asset to humans is unbearable. An animal’s life is at equal values to a human and deserve the same rights as

At one point in your life, have you ever thought to yourself how was the meat on your plate produced, and why is it so cheap? Billions of farm animals are consumed every year in the U.S. at cheap costs and endure in conditions that buyers wouldn’t acknowledge. A large portion of our meats originate from meat industries that produce, abuse, and process meat for the public from farms that abuse animals unless the animal was raised organically. The meats that are produced are a necessity for a us omnivores because we eat meat on a daily basis as a source for protein and fat, unless you are vegetarian, or vegan. Now since it’s a necessity for us living beings, is cruelty in animal agriculture worth the outcome for better for our economy?

In today’s world, there is a division among the people in the world regarding whether or not it is ethical to eat meat. After researching about eating meat and vegetarianism, I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed ethical to eat meat in today’s society. Sure, eating meat might have its drawbacks, but I have found that the benefits of eating meat far outweigh the negatives of eating it. Eating meat not only helps improve people’s health, but it also helps strengthen our economy and it has little difference in the environmental impact that involves in the farming of vegetables. Eating too much of anything usually results in a negative outcome.