• American Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.57-81
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• 2020

This article examines the repercussions of the US livestock industry Jonathan Safran Foer addresses in Eating Animal. According to Foer, eating(including consuming meat) has never been understood simply as a metabolism for getting energy, but a cultural foundation wherein an individual is able to construct one's subjectivity in relation to others. Eating meat thus entails not only varied layers of memories with family, friend, and society but also the ethical contact with the animal. US factory farms, however, transform this complexity of relation into a monetary system by which animals become a protein machine. This paper investigates the process of violent reductionism through which US factory farms convert livestock into a processed meat packet. In many ways, customers are liable for this sheer violence against animals as they unknowingly or willingly forget the reality of the US meat industry. Consequently, cheap meat writes back to all living things in that factory farms lead to not only animal cruelty but also environmental pollution and sick people. Foer thus encourages his readers to be more conscientious about the meat they consume as it is able to mediate the detrimental structure of capital the US meat industry brings about.