I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals years ago and found its arguments about reducing meat intake to be convincing. I decided to try an experiment and go vegetarian. I’ve not eaten meat since 2014, and it was the right decision *for me.* In We are the Weather, he expands the argument by noting how our turn to a plant-based diet can have greater ecological impact than electric cars or other climate-change initiatives.
The book takes on several parts, some of it more logical in focus, some of it more experimental, such as the conversation he has with himself. Just as in the previous book, Foer unpacks why the animal food-product industry is so detrimental to the environment and why reducing our intake would be so beneficial to the planet. He also explains the nuance of why more people, particularly in the West, are NOT on a plant-based diet. Here, he notes that he does not often practice what he preaches, either. Another interesting insight is that the people who bear the biggest burden of climate-change are the people who make the least impact. That was a sobering thought.
I’ve already given up meat, so now I am working on incorporating more plant-based foods in my diet (which I admit is the HARDEST part, because I dearly love cooking with eggs and dairy). This book is interesting and should provoke some hard but necessary conversations we need to have immediately about how we can combat climate change in simple but effective means.
