Jonathan Safran Foer Responds to TFT Criticism

In a recent article TFT food politics correspondent Hannah Wallace called out Jonathan Safran Foer for remarks he made on “Larry King.”

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The TV segment focused on meat and food-borne illnesses, and Safran Foer pointed out that more than 99% of the meat that’s raised in this country comes from factory farms. Wallace, while not disagreeing with Safran Foer, questioned why he didn’t mention that in many parts of the country it’s possible to buy meat that does not come from factory farms.” Foer seems to be saying,” wrote Wallace, “that being a vegetarian is the only practical choice to this practically inescapable industrial food system.”

Below is Safran Foer’s Response:

Hannah is right. It was an entirely incomplete conversation. I hope she gets a chance to read my book, because I devote a disproportionate number of pages—disproportionate to their place in American agriculture—praising such small farmers as Frank Reese, Paul Willis, and (as she mentioned) Bill Niman. They are wonderful exceptions to factory farming, but sadly, at least for now, they are exceptions that prove the rule. (As she might know, Bill wasn’t even able to stay at his namesake company, because—as he describes it—being able to grow, as a company, meant sacrificing some of the welfare protocols he wasn’t willing to budge on. Bill Niman won’t eat Niman Ranch meat.)

This is the problem with television—it’s not very good at being comprehensive. It can’t even strive to be. But books can. If Hannah reads my book, she’ll see that it isn’t a straightforward case for vegetarianism, but one against factory farming. I imagine that despite the different conclusions we might reach for our own lives (I wouldn’t eat meat from even the best family farm), she’ll agree with me about the urgency and profundity of the problems.