Eating Animals

by Jonathan Safran Foer

  100 “That which willing nods . . .” Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, Anchor Bible series (New York: Doubleday, 1991).

  “You have come to me, Lord Bear . . .” Jonathan Z. Smith, Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown, Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 59.

  the red heifer sacrificed . . . Saul Lieberman, Greek in Jewish Palestine: Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1994), 159–160.

  102 “beauty always takes place . . .” Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 18.

  THE FIRST ANIMAL ETHICS . . . The observation that an older ethic in which the animals’ and farmers’ interests overlapped became obsolete with the rise of factory farming is a basic premise of the philosophical and advocacy work of animal welfare expert and professor of philosophy Dr. Bernard Rollin. I am indebted to him for these reflections.

  103 in the late 1820s and ’30s . . . D. D. Stull and M. J. Broadway, Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America, Case Studies on Contemporary Social Issues (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2003), 34.

  Kill men, sticker-bleeders . . . Ibid., 70–71.

  the efficiencies of these lines . . . Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (New York: Plume, 1993), 120.

  104 The pressure to improve . . . Stull and Broadway, Slaughterhouse Blues, 33; Rifkin, Beyond Beef, 87–88.

  The average distance our meat . . . R. Pirog and others, “Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions,” Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, Iowa, 2001, http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/index.htm (accessed July 16, 2009).

  By 1908, conveyer systems . . . Stull and Broadway, Slaughterhouse Blues, 34.

  doubling and even tripling . . . Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 173; Steve Bjerklie, “The Era of Big Bird Is Here: The Eight-Pound Chicken Is Changing Processing and the Industry,” Business Journal for Meat and Poultry Processors, January 1, 2008, http://www.meatpoultry.com/ Feature_Stories.asp?ArticleID=90548 (accessed July 15, 2009).

  with predictable increases . . . Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers’ Rights in US Meat and Poultry Plants (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2004), 33–38.

  In 1923, in the Delmarva . . . Stull and Broadway, Slaughterhouse Blues, 38; Steve Striffler, Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 34.

  105 With the help of newly discovered feed . . . The addition of vitamins A and D to chicken feed allowed birds to survive confinement that otherwise would have prevented adequate growth and bone development. Jim Mason, Animal Factories (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1990), 2.

  105 By 1926, Steele had 10,000 birds . . . Stull and Broadway, Slaughterhouse Blues, 38.

  and by 1935, 250,000 . . . History of Sussex County, “Celia Steele & the Broiler Industry,” sussexcountyde.gov, 2009, http://www.sussexcoun tyde.gov/about/history/events.cfm?action=broiler (accessed July 15, 2009).

  The average flock size in America . . . W. O. Wilson, “Housing,” in American Poultry History: 1823–1973, edited by Oscar August Hanke and others (Madison, WI: American Poultry Historical Society, 1974), 218.

  Just ten years after Steele’s breakthrough . . . Striffler, Chicken, 34.

  Poultry production is the region’s primary . . . Lynette M. Ward, “Environmental Policies for a Sustainable Poultry Industry in Sussex County, Delaware,” Ph.D. dissertation, Environmental and Energy Policy, University of Delaware, 2003, 4, 15, http://northeast.manure management.cornell.edu/docs/Ward_2003_Dissertation.pdf (accessed August 16, 2009).

  Nitrates contaminate one-third . . . P. A. Hamilton and others, “Water-quality assessment of the Delmarva Peninsula,” Report Number 03–40, http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr9340. For discussion see Peter S. Goodman, “An Unsavory Byproduct: Runoff and Pollution,” Washington Post, August 1, 1999, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/aug99/chicken1.htm (accessed July 6, 2009).

  Steele’s birds never would have survived . . . Mason, Animal Factories, 2.

  produced with the help of government subsidies . . . Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 52–54.

  delivered by chain-driven feeders . . . Mason, Animal Factories, 2.

  Debeaking . . . Ibid.

  106 “the broad-breasted appearance . . .” George E. “Jim.” Coleman, “One Man’s Recollections over 50 Years,” Broiler Industry (1976): 56.

  The 1940s also saw the introduction . . . Mason, Animal Factories, 2.

  excessive amounts of eggs (layers) . . . P. Smith and C. Daniel, The Chicken Book (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975), 270–272.

  From 1935 to 1995, the average weight . . . William Boyd, “Making Meat: Science, Technology, and American Poultry Production,” Technology and Culture 42 (October 2001): 636–637, as quoted in Striffler, Chicken, 46.

  107 companies own three-fourths . . . Paul Aho, “Feather Success,” Watt Poultry USA, February 2002, http://www.wattnet.com/Archives/Docs/202wp30.pdf?CFID=28327&CFTOKEN=64015918 (accessed July 13, 2009).

  108 “However one interprets . . .” Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am, edited by Marie-Louise Mallet, translated by David Wills (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008), 25–26.

  109 As described in industry journals . . . This choice collection of quotations from industry journals was compiled in Jim Mason’s groundbreaking book on factory farming, Animal Factories, 1. The quotations are from (in order): Farmer and Stockbreeder, January 30, 1962; J. Byrnes, “Raising Pigs by the Calendar at Maplewood Farm,” Hog Farm Management, September 1976; “Farm Animals of the Future,” Agricultural Research, U.S. Department of Agriculture, April 1989.

  In the past fifty years . . . Scott Derks, ed., The Value of a Dollar: 1860–1999, millennium ed. (Lakeville, CT: Grey House Publishing, 1999), 280; Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, US City Average, Milk, Fresh, Whole, Fortified, Per Gallon.

  99.9 percent of chickens raised for meat . . . See note for page 12.

  Influence / Speechlessness

  Page

  117 On average . . . Calculated on the basis of USDA statistics by Noam Mohr.

  123 the first of six to be killed . . . Michael Greger, “Hong Kong 1997,” BirdFluBook.com, http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=15 (accessed July 6, 2009).

  124 1918 pandemic killed more people faster . . . Even a low estimate of twenty million dead makes the 1918 pandemic the most deadly pandemic in history. Y. Ghendon, “Introduction to pandemic influenza through history,” European Journal of Epidemiology 10 (1994): 451–453. Depending on what death estimates one accepts, World War II might have claimed more lives than the 1918 pandemic in absolute terms, but it raged for six years, whereas the 1918 pandemic was over in two.

  124 Spanish flu killed as many . . . J. M. Barry, “Viruses of mass destruction,” Fortune 150, no. 9 (2004): 74–76.

  recent revisions of the death toll . . . NPAS Johnson and J. Mueller, “Updating the Accounts: Global mortality of the 1918–1920 ‘Spanish’ influenza pandemic,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 76 (2002): 105–115.

  one-quarter of Americans . . . A. W. Crosby, Epidemic and Peace, 1918 (Westford, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976), 205.

  125 highest in the twenty-five-to-twenty-nine-year-old group . . . J. S. Nguyen-Van-Tam and A. W. Hampson, “The epidemiology and clinical impact of pandemic influenza,” Vaccine 21 (2003): 1762–1768, 1765, http://birdfluexposed.com/resources/tam1772.pdf (accessed July 6, 2009).

  average life expectancy for Americans . . . L. Garrett, “The Next Pandemic? Probable cause,” Foreign Affairs 84, no. 4 (2005).

  twenty thousand Americans died in a week . . . Crosby, Epidemic and Peace, 1918, 60.

  Steam shovels were used . . . Pete Davies, The Devil’s Flu (New York: Henry Holt, 2000), 86.

 
“We know another pandemic is inevitable . . . ” World Health Organization, “World is ill-prepared for ‘inevitable’ flu pandemic,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2004, http://who.int/bulletin/volumes/82/4/who%20news.pdf (accessed July 6, 2009).

  “not only inevitable . . .” M. S. Smolinksi and others, Microbial Threats to Health: The Threat of Pandemic Influenza (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005), 138.

  a threat is imminent . . . Predicting how a pandemic will affect human populations is particularly difficult because it involves expertise spread across many scientific disciplines (pathology, epidemiology, sociology, and veterinary sciences, among others) and involves predicting complex interactions between pathogens, new technological tools (like geographic information systems, remote sensing data, and molecular epidemiology), and policy decisions by health authorities worldwide (that is, the whims of world leaders). “Report of the WHO/FAO/OIE joint consultation on emerging zoonotic diseases: in collaboration with the Health Council of the Netherlands,” May 3–5, 2004, Geneva, Switzerland, 7.

  126 The world may be on the brink . . . “Ten things you need to know about pandemic influenza,” World Health Organization, 2005, http://www .who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic10things/en/ (accessed July 16, 2009).

  “a relatively conservative estimate . . .” Ibid.

  The results, published in 2005 . . . J. K. Taubenberger and others, “Characterization of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase genes,” Nature 437, no. 889 (2005); R. B. Belshe, “The origins of pandemic influenza — lessons from the 1918 virus,” New England Journal of Medicine 353, no. 21 (2005): 2209–2211.

  the 1918 virus might have mutated . . . “Taubenberger and Reid’s subsequent work has revealed a provocative fact: the 1918 flu pandemic was not set off by the same circumstances as the ones of 1957 and 1968. Those viruses had surface proteins that jumped directly from birds, coupled with human-adapted core genes. By contrast, in the 1918 virus, the surface genes are mammalian in character. Though probably originally derived from a bird, the first had spent years adapting to life in mammals, either pigs or humans.” Madeline Drexler, Secret Agents (New York: Penguin, 2003). 189.

  uniquely susceptible to both . . . Ibid., 173.

  127 He called it the “barnyard theory” . . . Ibid., 170–171.

  cause twenty thousand “excess deaths” . . . Ibid., 170.

  a duck in central Europe . . . Ibid., 171.

  the primordial source of all flu . . . Ibid.

  128 H1 through the recently discovered H16 . . . Joseph LaDou, Current Occupational and Environmental Medicine (New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006), 263–264; R. A. M. Fouchier, “Characterization of a novel influenza A virus hemagglutinin subtype (H16) obtained from black-headed gulls,” Journal of Virology 79, no. 5 (2005): 2814–2822; Drexler, Secret Agents, 171.

  Domestic birds can also . . . Drexler, Secret Agents, 171.

  Humans, for example . . . Ibid., 172.

  The H stands for hemagglutinin . . . David S. Goodsell, “Hemagglutinin,” RCSB Protein Data Bank, April 2006, http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/static.do?p=education_discussion/molecule_of_the_month/pdb76_1 .html (accessed July 16, 2009).

  129 twenty sheds, each 45 feet wide . . . Terrence o’Keefe and Gray Thorton, “Housing Expansion Plans,” Walt Poultry Industry USA, June 2006, 30.

  up to 60 feet by 504 feet . . . Ibid.

  eight-tenths of a square foot . . . “About the Industry: Animal Welfare: Physical Well-Being of Chickens,” National Chicken Council, 2007, http://www.nationalchickencouncil.com/aboutIndustry/detail .cfm?id=11 (accessed July 6, 2009).

  130 The muscles and fat tissues . . . S. Boersma, “Managing Rapid Growth Rate in Broilers,” World Poultry 17, no. 8 (2001): 20, http://www.world poultry.net/article-database/managing-rapid-growth-rate-in-broilers-id1337.html (accessed July 8, 2009).

  leading to deformities . . . A regional report from the World’s Poultry Science Association concludes that “one of the main factors responsible [for leg problems in conventional broilers in conventional production systems] is their high growth rate.” G. S. Santotra and others, “Monitoring Leg Problems in Broilers: A survey of commercial broiler production in Denmark,” World’s Poultry Science Journal 57 (2001).

  between 1 and 4 percent . . . “Flip-over Disease: Introduction,” The Merk Veterinary Manual (Whitehouse Station, NJ: Merck, 2008), http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/202500.htm (accessed June 28, 2009).

  ascites, kills even more . . . M. H. Maxwell and G. W. Robertson, “World broiler ascites survey 1996,” Poultry Int. (April 1997), as cited in “Ascites,” Government of Alberta, July 15, 2008, http://www1 .agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/pou3546?open document (accessed June 28, 2009).

  Three out of four will have some degree . . . Santotra and others, “Monitoring Leg Problems in Broilers.”

  One out of four . . . T. G. Knowles and others, “Leg Disorders in Broiler Chickens: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Prevention,” PLoS ONE, (2008), http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone .0001545; S. C. Kestin and others, “Prevalence of leg weakness in broiler chickens and its relationship with genotype,” Veterinary Record 131 (1992): 190–194.

  130 they are in pain . . . Citing studies published in the Veterinary Record, a recent HSUS white paper concludes, “Research strongly suggests that birds [that have trouble walking] are in pain.” HSUS, “An HSUS Report: The Welfare of Animals in the Chicken Industry,” 2, http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/farm/welfare_broiler.pdf.

  leave the lights on nearly twenty-four hours . . . I. Duncan, “Welfare Problems of Poultry,” in The Well-Being of Farm Animals: Challenges and Solutions, edited by G. J. Benson and B. E. Rollin. (Ames, IA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 310; Christine Woodside, Living on an Acre: A Practical Guide to the Self-Reliant Life (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2003), 234.

  forty-second day . . . I. Duncan, “Welfare problems of meat-type chickens,” Farmed Animal Well-Being Conference, University of California–Davis, June 28–29, 2001, http://www.upc-online.org/fall2001/well-being_conference_review.html (accessed on August 12, 2009).

  131 (or increasingly the thirty-ninth) . . . “39-day blog following the life of a factory farmed chicken,” Compassion in World Farming, http://www .chickenout.tv/39-day-blog.html; G. T. Tabler, I. L. Berry, and A. M. Mendenhall, “Mortality Patterns Associated with Commercial Broiler Production,” Avian Advice (University of Arkansas) 6, no. 1 Spring (2004): 1–3.

  Beyond deformities, eye damage . . . Jim Mason, Animal Factories (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1990), 29.

  virtually all . . . chickens . . . “Nationwide Young Chicken Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Program,” Food Safety and Inspection Service, November 1999–October 2000, http://www.fsis.usda .gov/Science/Baseline_Data/index.asp (accessed July 17, 2009); Nichols Fox, “Safe Food? Not Yet,” New York Times, January 30, 1997, http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/30/opinion/safe-food-not-yet .html?pagewanted=print (accessed August 16, 2009); K. L. Kotula and Y. Pandya, “Bacterial Contamination of Broiler Chickens Before Scalding,” Journal of Food Protection 58, no. 12 (1995): 1326–1329, http://www .ingentaconnect.com./content/iafp/jfp/1995/00000058/00000012/ art00007%3Bjsessionid=1ms4km94qohkn.alexandra (accessed August 16, 2009).

  between 39 and 75 percent . . . C. Zhao and others, “Prevalence of Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, and Salmonella Serovars in Retail Chicken, Turkey, Pork, and Beef from the Greater Washington, D.C., Area,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67, no. 12 (December 2001): 5431–5436, http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/12/5431?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULT FORMAT=&fulltext=coli&searchid =1&FIRSTINDEX=2400&resourcetype=HWFIG (accessed August 16, 2009); R. B. Kegode and others, “Occurrence of Campylobacter species, Salmonella species, and generic Escherichia coli in meat products from retail outlets in the Fargo metropolitan area,” Journal of Food Safety 28, no. 1 (2008): 111–125, http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/
publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=196570 (accessed August 16, 2009).

  131 Around 8 percent of birds . . . S. Russell and others, “Zero tolerance for salmonella raises questions,” WattPoultry.com, 2009, http://www .wattpoultry.com/PoultryUSA/Article.aspx?id=30786 (accessed August 16, 2009).

  at least one in four birds . . . Kotula and Pandya, “Bacterial Contamination of Broiler Chickens Before Scalding,” 1326–1329.

  which still occurs on some farms . . . “Dirty Birds: Even Premium Chickens Harbor Dangerous Bacteria,” Consumer Reports, January 2007, www.usapeec.org/p_documents/newsandinfo_050612111938.pdf (accessed July 8, 2009).

  Seventy to 90 percent are infected . . . Marian Burros, “Health Concerns Mounting over Bacteria in Chickens,” New York Times, October 20, 1997, http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/20/us/health-concerns-mounting-over-bacteria-in-chickens.html?scp=1&sq=%22Health%20Concerns%20Mounting%20Over%20Bacteria%20in%20Chickens%22&st=cse (accessed July 17, 2009). See also: Alan R. Sams, Poultry Meat Processing (Florence, KY: CRC Press, 2001), 143, http://books.google.com/books?id=UCjhDRSP13wC&pg=PP1&dq=Poultry+Meat+Processing&ei=ag9hSprSFYrgkwSv8Om9Dg (accessed July 17, 2009); Kotula and Pandya, “Bacterial Contamination of Broiler Chickens Before Scalding,” 1326–1329; Zhao and others, “Prevalence of Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, and Salmonella Serovars in Retail Chicken, Turkey, Pork, and Beef from the Greater Washington, D.C., Area,” 5431–5436; J. C. Buzby and others, “Bacterial Foodborne Disease: Medical Costs and Productivity Losses,” Agricultural Economics Report, no. AER741 (August 1996): 3, http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AER741/ (accessed August 16, 2009).

  131 Chlorine baths are commonly used . . . G. C. Mead, Food Safety Control in the Poultry Industry (Florence, KY: CRC Press, 2005), 322; Sams, Poultry Meat Processing, 143, 150.

  the birds will be injected . . . “Buying This Chicken? You could pay up to $1.70 for broth,” ConsumerReports.org, June 2008, http://www .consumerreports.org/cro/food/news/2008/06/poultry-companies-adding-broth-to-products/overview/enhanced-poultry-ov.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=8&searchTerm=chicken (accessed August 16, 2009).