Eating Animals
Directed by: Christopher Dillon Quinn
Written by: Christopher Dillon Quinn - Based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer
Narrated by: Natalie Portman
Documentary - 94 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 June 2018
Written by: Christopher Dillon Quinn - Based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer
Narrated by: Natalie Portman
Documentary - 94 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 June 2018
Eating Animals launches with on-screen text saying the meat we eat comes 99% of the time from factory farms and 1% from the local farmer. There are a whole textbook of facts in this documentary based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s eponymous book. Turkeys can’t have sex anymore; their mutated bodies are too big. They are all artificially insiminated now. 80% of the drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies go to the factory farms which is why superbugs are emerging resistant to even our most advanced anti-bacterials. Eating Animals is a factual horror movie. I tried vegetarianism in college because I saw videos of animal torture like the ones which will nauseate you here, but there is only so much cheese pizza a body can absorb before it starts breaking down. Now that I enjoy somewhat of a disposable income, perhaps it’s time to give being vegetarian another shot.
Eating Animals is not dogmatic. It does not claim vegetarians and vegans are superior to meat eaters. However, it does say meat eaters are lied to about where the meat comes from. If people witnessed firsthand the filth and torture the animals experience before they wind up as a McNugget, the system would change. Here’s an eyebrow-raising fact - 50% of the ongoing climate change warming the planet and melting the poles are from raising animals for food. Eating Animals will affect those brave enough to watch. Most likely, the audience is already well aware of the problem and the malicious intent of Big Agriculture and the lobbyists to ensure nothing changes.
Eating Animals is not dogmatic. It does not claim vegetarians and vegans are superior to meat eaters. However, it does say meat eaters are lied to about where the meat comes from. If people witnessed firsthand the filth and torture the animals experience before they wind up as a McNugget, the system would change. Here’s an eyebrow-raising fact - 50% of the ongoing climate change warming the planet and melting the poles are from raising animals for food. Eating Animals will affect those brave enough to watch. Most likely, the audience is already well aware of the problem and the malicious intent of Big Agriculture and the lobbyists to ensure nothing changes.
I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel, Everything is Illuminated, in college. It is phenomenal. His second novel, Extremely Loud and Incredible Close, was engaging, but less expansive than his first effort. Director Christopher Dillon Quinn opted to adapt Foer’s non-fiction book about the danger of factory farms and enlisted impressive help. Natalie Portman is both a producer and the narrator. Portman’s voice is calm, borderline soothing, as she shows us what a hog pond is and how hundreds of hog ponds in eastern North Carolina are destroying lakes and poisoning the groundwater. The entire concept of a pink hog pond and the business model of Tyson Foods are so absurd, perhaps the narrator should be Gilbert Gottfried.
There is no such thing as the independent, rural farmer anymore. He is a myth. Tyson Foods centrally owns and manages the meat food chain and put all the risk on the farmer. They divide the rural community against one another by pitting them in competition. The winners get bonuses. These bonuses come from cutting the pay of the bottom; “it is peasants serving the will of corporations.” Nobody shares information anymore and this isolation and paranoia destroys communities. Thinking about blowing the whistle? You will lose. Lobbyists line the pockets of state legislatures to procure Ag-Gag laws. It is now a felony in 30 states to film and/or take pictures of slaughterhouse horror.
The entire enterprise is so depressing it is challenging to grasp at the slivers of hope Quinn offers. Some farmers quit in disgust. Innovative plant technology can produce food which tastes exactly like meat. These good feelings last all of a few seconds before the next video pummels us with a baby pig getting slammed into a concrete wall or a forklift shoving a screaming cow. What the hell is wrong with people? The USDA is supposed to be looking out for us, the citizens. Instead, Quinn proves they look out for industry. The FBI will accuse you of eco-terrorism if your try and film and the cow who was raped to death for ‘scientific’ purposes. Eating Animals is important. It has a message which must be told as loud as possible. But I understand if you want nothing to do with it. Ignorance is far more palatable.
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