When Jonathan Safran Foer found out he was going to be a father, he started to worry about the gastronomic education of his future child. He thought about what he would give him to eat, how he would cook it, which ingredients would form part of his diet and which should be avoided. He also started to think about whether he would give him animals to eat. To base himself firmly on facts, this writer—one of US literature’s best young talents today—decided to research the meat industry. Three years later, with little Sasha running around his Park Slope apartment in New York, Safran Foer published his latest book, Eating animals (Comer animales, the Spanish language version published by Seix Barral, 2011), a critical text that aims not to convince his readers of the advantages of vegetarianism, but to provide them with enough information to draw their own conclusions—to be aware, for example, that the meat industry is one of the main reasons for climate change as a result of the huge quantity of noxious gases it generates.
Jonathan Safran Foer presented Comer animales at the CCCB on 11 May, accompanied by Jesús Mosterín, philosopher and defender of animal rights and the environment. The talk alternated between Mosterín’s pro-environment, pro-animal welfare discourse and Safran Foer’s defence of the need to be aware of what we are eating. According to the New York writer, it is easier to make small decisions about the animal products we consume, such as asking about the source of meat or avoiding fast-food restaurants, than to convert to vegetarianism. And, if we do become vegetarians, it should not be just a question of health but also of ethics.
During his visit, Jonathan Safran Foer answered the CCCB’s questions. This is a summary of the interview.
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