Eating Animals

Based on a 2009 book by Jonathan Safran Foer and narrated by Natalie Portman, Christopher Dillon Quinn’s documentary illustrates the deplorable ways in which chickens, turkeys, and pigs are raised in what are euphemistically called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Within these overpacked assembly-line factories, the animals are fatted up for slaughter on diets that include heavy doses of antibiotics, which can have an adverse impact on human consumers (the avian flu epidemic in China is cited as an example). Huge amounts of waste matter are also released into rivers and streams, polluting the environment in ways that directly endanger both fish and people. Quinn is able to demonstrate how these plants function, even though pressure from the meat industry has led many states to pass so-called “Ag-gag” legislation criminalizing any photography or filming by outsiders. Whistleblowers are also interviewed, including a struggling contractor who found himself in increasing debt to a company, a scientist whose life was destroyed when he revealed experiments in genetic engineering at a government-sponsored research center, and members of a watchdog group who are studying the contamination of rivers by CAFOs upstream. Quinn briefly discusses individuals—such as Harland Sanders and John Tyson—who have been instrumental in developing techniques of mass production, as well as farmers who eschew these practices, although his ultimate aim is not to persuade viewers to stop eating meat but rather to encourage the revival of private-farm production. While it underplays some important issues of cost and demand, this committed documentary makes a compelling case by appealing to both reason and emotion. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include deleted scenes (4 min.), and an interview with author and screenwriter Jonathan Safran Foer (3 min.). Bottom line: a small extras package for a thought-provoking documentary.] (F. Swietek)