Reason #15 Why This Vegan Is Optimistic: Duke & UNC find common ground on Eating Animals

July 24, 2011

Eating Animals book cover

No matter which school you root for in basketball, here’s a reason to get behind both Carolina & Duke!

Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have both chosen Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, Eating Animals, as their reading selection for incoming first-year students.

If you haven’t read this book yet, I highly recommend it. Safran Foer has a unique voice and gives a thoughtful, well-researched look at our society’s treatment of animals, especially those raised and slaughtered on factory farms.

It is, quite simply, a big deal that North Carolina’s top two universities picked Eating Animals as their first-year reading selection. Here in NC, we have the onerous distinction of being the #2 pork-producing state in the US. We have more pigs than people. In 2007, there were nearly 10 million pigs on farms in NC (USDA Census of Agriculture). And these aren’t just any farms. These are some of the largest animal factories, for any type of animal, in the whole world. Right here in eastern North Carolina. In general, larger factory farms mean poorer treatment of the animals and greater environmental pollution.

(graph courtesy of National Hog Farmer magazine)

The hog industry is so powerful in North Carolina that they recently were responsible for the failure of state legislation aimed at regulating puppy mills. The pork producers were concerned that statewide rules on the treatment of puppies and dogs in breeding operations would open the door to state regulation of the treatment of pigs on their factory farms. Clearly, UNC and Duke are not afraid of the pork lobby.

Approximately 5000 incoming freshmen at UNC and 1700 at Duke will read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals. If this book’s realistic portrayal of the meat industry persuades even 1% of these students to go vegetarian, that’s about 3300 animals whose lives will be saved every year. Educating young adults, such as college students, on the realities of the meat industry is critical to bringing about change for the animals because they are just starting to make their own decisions about food purchasing. I have high hopes for the Class of 2015!