chapters 16 & 17

In this reading Pollan talks to us about how the slaughterhouses try and hide the killing of their animals. He goes on to talk about how it has become easier as Americans to eat animals without thinking about it because it is delivered to us as meat and we never have to see the animal. After this He talks about a meal he shares with Peter Singer an animal rights advocate and his experience during that meal. Singers argument is that as Americans we are taught to believe that all people are created equal, and that is meant metaphorically and that it should extend to animals.

Although Singer says that animals should share rights with humans I believe that it is inevitable for people to kill and eat animals. The basic circle of life is that bigger animals eat smaller animals which eventually die and in turn provide fertilizer or food for the smaller animals. To try and stop eating animals would be trying to change basic human nature and would be counter productive toward the evolution which has lead our species to be the dominant life form on the planet. Killing and eating animals is only natural and if you observe the natural order of things in nature then you see time and time again that animals kill and eat each other to survive.