foer’s reasons

‘this story didn’t begin as a book. i simply wanted to know … what meat is. i wanted to know as concretely as possible. where does it come from? how is it produced? how are animals treated, and to what extent does that matter? what are the economic, social, and environmental effects of eating animals? … as a parent, i came face-to-face with realities that as a citizen i couldn’t ignore, and as a writer i couldn’t keep to myself…. place [the facts] in a story about the world we live in and who we are and who we want to be–and you can begin to speak meaningfully about eating animals…. we are not only the tellers of our stories, we are the stories themselves…. this book is my most earnest attempt to transmit [my grandmother’s] lesson to our son…. [she said,] “if nothing matters, there’s nothing  to save.” ‘